Nearby live cattle futures ended the day 12 to 45 cents lower. Feeders faded by as much as 82 cents across the front months. USDA confirmed some minimal $172 WCB cash sales on Thursday. USDA confirmed Friday cash sales near $172-$173. Feeder cattle also rallied on Thursday with $2.35 to $2.77 gains (as much as 1.2%) that led the March contract to the 38.2% retracement of the fall board collapse. The CME Feeder Cattle Index dropped by 3 cents to $227.26 on 1/18.
The monthly CoF data from NASS had 11.93m head in 1,000+ capacity feedlots on Jan 1. That was a 2.1% increase from last year and matched estimates. The 1.704m head placed in December were 4.5% below Dec ’22, as expected. Marketings were slightly below the trade average guess @ 1.725m head, or -0.9% from the year prior.
Beef export sales in the week that ended on January 11 totaled 21,400 MT, with South Korea the top buyer of 7,800 MT and Chinc purchasing 5,200 MT. Shipments were tallied at 15,200 MT, with South Korea also the top destination.
The Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were weaker on Friday afternoon with Choice down by 79 cents and Select 71 cents weaker. USDA reported the week’s beef output at 523.8m lbs, compared to 533.6 million last year. That has the YTD total trailing last year by 6.3%. The week’s slaughter was also down 4.6% from last year’s pace with 617k head. The YTD slaughter total reached 1.705m head but remains 9% behind last year’s pace.
Feb 24 Cattle closed at $174.375, down $0.450,
Apr 24 Cattle closed at $177.375, down $0.275,
Jun 24 Cattle closed at $174.325, down $0.200,
Jan 24 Feeder Cattle closed at $230.100, down $0.825
Mar 24 Feeder Cattle closed at $231.950, down $0.600
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