Live cattle futures are falling 47 to 90 cents at midday. Cash trade saw some $185-187 sales in the South last week, with northern trade down $3 to $193. Feeder cattle futures are down 1.50 to $2 at midday. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was down $3.13 at $249.71 on August 8. Monday’s OKC auction is estimated to sell 5,500 head with demand noted a good so far.
In the monthly WASDE update, USDA raised expected beef production for 2024 by 81 million lbs to 26.736 billion.
Friday’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 Monday morning report. Choice boxes were up $2.51 at $315.22, with Select product $1.32 higher @ $299.91. The Chc/Select spread was $15.31. 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 are at $183.600, down $0.650,
Oct 24 Live Cattle are at $180.25, down $0.90,
Dec 24 Live Cattle are at $179.125, down $0.475,
Aug 24 Feeder Cattle are at $244.375, down $2.000
Sep 24 Feeder Cattle are at $240.100, down $1.500
Oct 24 Feeder Cattle are at $238.150, down $1.625
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.
