Friday markets
The cattle market was unable to find gains higher moving into the weekend.
Live cattle futures were lower, down $1.55 apiece on the February and April contracts, closing at $233.72 and $234.67, respectively.
“Although the fed cash cattle market has shown traders that the market’s trend is most likely going to be higher this week, the live cattle contracts are slowly trading lower into Friday’s noon hour,” ShayLe Stewart, DTN livestock analyst, in her midday comments.
Cash trade for the day totaled about 15,000 head. Live steers sold from $232-233, and dressed steers sold for $365. Cash trade for the whole week totaled about 50,000 head.
“In the south last week, trades were based on a few cash trades at $231-$232, the broad bids at $232 were passed on Friday creating the need for packers to finish the week on Saturday morning purchasing cattle at +$1 and +$2 to a $232 base,” the Cattle Report said.
This avoids the higher sales being reported by USDA, the outlet noted.
“So long as USDA assists packers in setting sub par base prices, packers will be moving to ‘over the top’ transactions,” the Cattle Report continued.
Slaughter for the day is estimated at 86,000 head, compared to 116,000 head a week earlier. With tomorrow’s slaughter estimated at just 2,000 head, total slaughter for the week is projected at 553,000 head.
Boxed beef prices were mixed on 118 loads. The Choice cutout lost $1.16 to close at $355.63, and the Select cutout gained 11 cents to close at $352.17.
Feeder cattle
“And once again, in keeping with the same trend as the live cattle complex, the feeder cattle contracts are also trading lower into midday Friday,” Stewart said.
Feeder cattle futures were lower. The January contract lost $1.75 to close at $360.72, and the March contract lost $3.02 to close at $354.70.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index gained $4.92 to close at $368.07.
Corn futures were slightly lower, down 2 cents on the March contract to $4.45 and down 2 cents on the May contract to $4.53. — Anna Miller Fortozo, WLJ managing editor
