June Cattle Futures Seek Cash Direction, Other Months Down on Thursday

June LC (or LE depending on your platform) settled 5 cents higher at $181.82.  June options expire tomorrow, with a wide range of plausible pins.  The rest of the futures contracts settled 40 to 95 cents lower. Cash cattle trade picked up today, with $185 to $190 reported in Kansas and Texas. Most were at the $185 end, $1 below last week. Feeder futures were down $1.97 to $2.20, with the lower finished cattle prices and higher feed costs both weighing on the walking inputs. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was down 32 cents on June 5 to $250.54. 

USDA this morning reported net weekly beef export sales of 14,500 MT for the week ending May 30, primarily to South Korea and Japan and down about 8% from the previous week.

Census reported April beef exports of 95,000 MT, up from 94,000 in March and down 1.8% vs. April 2023. 

USDA’s Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were still mixed in the afternoon report, with choice quoted $1.42 higher at $316.21 and select carcasses down 7 cents at $300.83 per 100 pounds on average. USDA estimated Thursday FI cattle slaughter at 122,000 head, taking the weekly total to 489,000 head. That is down 5,382 head from the same week last year. 

Jun 24 Live Cattle  closed at $181.825, up $0.050,

Aug 24 Live Cattle  closed at $177.475, down $0.400,

Oct 24 Live Cattle  closed at $179.650, down $0.650,

Aug 24 Feeder Cattle  closed at $252.850, down $1.975,

Sep 24 Feeder Cattle  closed at $254.100, down $2.100,

Oct 24 Feeder Cattle  closed at $254.950, down $2.200,

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