Friday markets
The cattle market traded lower into the weekend, still waiting on cash trade to develop into Friday afternoon.
Live cattle futures closed mixed but traded mostly lower; up 5 cents on the June contract to $257.45 and down $1.40 on the August contract to $245.82.
“The live cattle contracts ended the day lower as traders were not willing to be overly supportive or overly bullish over the futures contracts without clear evidence that the market’s fundamentals were going to be strong,” wrote ShayLe Stewart, DTN livestock analyst, in her closing comments.
“And with the cash cattle market trading late on Friday, unfortunately, traders didn’t have any indication as to what the cash market was going to do at the day’s closing bell,” Stewart said.
Cash trade for the day totaled about 8,500 head. Live steers sold from $258-260, and dressed steers sold from $408-410. Total cash trade for the week through the afternoon so far is about 14,000 head.
Slaughter for the day is estimated at 100,000 head, compared to 95,000 head a week earlier. With tomorrow’s slaughter expected at 4,000 head, total slaughter for the week is estimated at 537,000 head, compared to 526,000 head a week earlier.
Boxed beef prices were lower on 94 loads. The Choice cutout lost $5.29 to close at $391.03, and the Select cutout lost $3.16 to close at $371.58.
Feeder cattle
Feeder cattle futures closed lower, down $3.45 on the August contract to $369.85 and down $3.70 on the September contract to $367.67.
“Traders remained skeptical through Friday’s close as they simply weren’t willing to advance the feeder cattle contracts without the support of the live cattle contracts or without knowing what was going to become of this week’s fed cash cattle market,” Stewart said.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index gained $6.03 to close at $381.86.
Corn futures were lower by a few cents apiece, down 2 cents on the July contract to $4.12 and down a penny on the December contract to $4.41. — Anna Miller Fortozo, WLJ managing editor
