Live cattle futures mimicked the stock market to a degree, selling off hard last week and into Monday, but finishing with at least a dead cat bounce. Futures rose $1.90 to $3.12 per cwt on Friday but were still lower on the week. Cash trade saw some $185-187 sales in the South this week, with northern trade down $3 to $193. Feeder cattle futures rose in tandem with the fats, settling $3.42 to $4.17 higher. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was down $3.13 at $249.71 on August 8.
Today’s Commitment of Traders report from CFTC showed commercials still heavily net short futures by 114,286 contracts on August 6. Managed money spec funds shrank their net long position by 21,911 contracts in the reporting week, taking it to 53,802 net long.
USDA wholesale Boxed Beef were higher in the Friday afternoon report. Choice boxes were up $0.59 at $312.71, with Select product 56 cents higher @ $298.59. The Chc/Select spread was $14.12. USDA estimated Friday FI slaughter at 104,000 head. That was down 12,000 from a week ago and down 4,000 vs. the same Friday a year ago.
Aug 24 Live Cattle closed at $184.250, up $2.200,
Oct 24 Live Cattle closed at $181.150, up $3.125,
Dec 24 Live Cattle closed at $179.600, up $2.875,
Aug 24 Feeder Cattle closed at $246.500, up $4.125,
Sep 24 Feeder Cattle closed at $241.600, up $4.175,
Oct 24 Feeder Cattle closed at $239.775, up $3.775,
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.
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