Live cattle fell sharply on Wednesday with losses of more than 3% for February The other previous months were $3.10 to $4.82 in the red at the settlement. The cash market traded at $171, which was $3-$4 weaker than last week. Feeders closed the futures trading session with 2.5% losses from $4.55 to $5.72. The 12/05 CME Feeder Cattle Index was $224.23, another 45 cent increase.
Census data showed US October beef exports of 241.5 million lbs. That’s up from the 231.5 million pound export figure for September, but down 20% from the same month last year. The year-to-date total was shown at 2.556 billion pounds, compared to 3 billion last year.
The USDA Wholesale Boxed Beef report showed mixed quotes as Choice continued lower with another $3.19 drop while Choice carcasses rebounded 77 cents. The federally inspected cattle slaughter for the week reached 376k head as of Wednesday. That’s a 3k head increase from the previous week, but down 2k head from the same week last year.
Dec 23 Oxen closed at $163,450, down $5,050,
Feb 24 Oxen closed at $163,550, down $5,425,
Apr 24 Oxen closed at $166,675, down $4,825,
Jan 24 Feeder Cow closed at $210,150, down $4,550
March 24 Feeder Cattle closed at $211,750, down $5,725
As of the date of publication, Alan Brugler did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is for informational purposes only. For more information, please see Barchart’s Disclosure Policy here.
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