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 of show lists. Trade talk has regionals and majors bidding $310-312 in the north, with asking prices $315 or higher and up to $200 live. 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 are some contrarian thoughts, with traders calling for anything from 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 Wednesday afternoon. Choice boxes were up another 18 cents to $320.70/cwt, with Select slipping back another 95 cents at $303.26. The Chc/Select spread widened to $17.44. USDA estimated FI slaughter for Wednesday at 121,000 head, with the weekly total at 360,000. That is down 7,000 head from the previous week and 17,777 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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