Live cattle bulls were taking a break ahead of the day off on Wednesday, with contracts down 20 to 75 cents. Cash trade has been quiet to start this week, with early action mostly compiling showlists. Trade was strong last week, with a few sales at $186 reported in KS by USDA and some up to $195. USDA also indicated $195-198 trade in NE, a record in the cash market. Feeder cattle futures were down $1.25 to 1.52 as the market closed out the Tuesday session. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was up $1.35 on June 17 at $257.07.
USDA will release an updated Cattle on Feed report this Friday, with the trade expecting to see May placements down 1.5% from a year ago. There is some contrarian thoughts, with the range calling for a 5% drop to a 2.4% increase. May marketings are seen up 0.5% on average. June 1 Cattle on Feed is projected to be down 1% vs. last year.
USDA reported wholesale Boxed Beef prices as mixed on Tuesday afternoon. Choice boxes were up another 5 cents to $320.52/cwt, with Select slipping back 61 cents at $304.21. The Chc/Select spread widened to $16.31. USDA estimated FI slaughter for Tuesday at 123,000 head, with the weekly total at 239,000. That is down 5,000 head from the previous week and 12,443 head below the same week last year.
Jun 24 Live Cattle closed at $186.675, down $0.375,
Aug 24 Live Cattle closed at $182.100, down $0.700,
Oct 24 Live Cattle closed at $183.875, down $0.750,
Aug 24 Feeder Cattle closed at $259.950, down $1.375,
Sep 24 Feeder Cattle closed at $261.125, down $1.450,
Oct 24 Feeder Cattle closed at $261.975, down $1.325,
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