Cattle futures flipped back to red on the weekly charts on Thursday with $1.85 to $2.97 losses on the day. That left April futures at a weekly loss of 65 cents into the Friday session. April futures still hold a premium out to Dec. Feeders led the way lower on the day with losses of as much as 1.8% as April closed $4.67 in the red. April was down by more than $5 at the low for the day. USDA reported live cattle traded hands from $185 to $190 on Thursday, with light and sporadic volume. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was 27 cents stronger to $248.46.
Weekly beef export bookings were shown at 11.2k MT for the week that ended 3/7. That was down from 14k MT last week and was a new low for the year. The week’s shipment came in at 16k MT for an accumulated export of 149k MT. That remains 8.5% ahead of last year’s pace.
USDA’s PM Boxed Beef prices were shown at $310.78 in Choice and at $301.69 for Select. That was a 96c increase for Choice and represented a 65c increase for Select. The rib primals were shown at $468.33 and $453.56 respectively. USDA’s FI cattle slaughter estimate was at 473k head for the week through Thursday. That is down 11,000 head from last week and compares to 498k head during the same week last year.
Apr 24 Cattle closed at $186.950, down $2.975,
Jun 24 Cattle closed at $183.375, down $2.675,
Aug 24 Cattle closed at $182.100, down $2.275,
Mar 24 Feeder Cattle closed at $247.475, down $2.800
Apr 24 Feeder Cattle closed at $251.175, down $4.675
On 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 solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Disclosure Policy here.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
