Cash Fed Cattle Steady, Feeder Cattle and Calves Post Significant Gains
Weaker cattle futures triggered moderate to limited volumes of live trades at steady money on Friday. Cattle in the north traded at $165 live and $265 dressed, steady with last week. Cattle in the South also traded steady at $165 per cwt. Feedyards are fully current in their marketings and showlists for many are not large.
Feeder cattle sold mostly $2 to $4 per cwt. higher with instances of $5 higher. Calves traded mostly $2 to $6 higher with a full range of steady to $8 higher.
Wholesale beef prices tumbled lower for the week. Choice boxed beef closed Friday at $284.91 per cwt., down $4.41 for the week. Select boxed beef closed Friday at $271.54per cwt., down $5.32 for the week.
Estimated weekly cattle slaughter was 634,000 head, down 3,000 head from the same week a year ago. The year-to-date total was 6.293 million, down 2.5% from last year.
April live cattle futures fell 52 1/2 cents on Friday to $164.275, near the session low and for the week dropped $1.15. May feeder cattle futures lost $1.90 to $203.575 and nearer the session low. For the week, May feeders gained $2.625.
Analysts say the technically bearish weekly low close in April live cattle futures Friday sets the stage for some more follow-through selling pressure on Monday, but so far the pullback is just routine profit taking and a downside correction in a market that’s still fully bullish, overall. Much of today’s price weakness was due to a “risk-off” trading atmosphere in the general marketplace, due to the failure of a major U.S. bank based in California. More keen risk-off attitudes next week could limit the upside in the cattle futures markets.
