Tuesday markets
Cattle futures extended their gains today, with contracts reaching new highs.
“CME cattle futures continue to quietly and methodically creep higher, making contract highs yet again today,” Cassie Fish, market analyst, wrote in The Beef. “The market is overbought and is now pushing further into overbought territory.”
Live cattle futures were higher, with the April contract 70 cents to $216.35 and the June contract up 60 cents to $21.20.
Cash trade was light, with 862 head sold.
On the formula side, 19,100 head averaging 918 lbs. sold for an average of $340.11.
“Expectations are for two repeats this week,” Fish wrote. “One, another historically small cattle slaughter. Slaughter is anticipated to be sub-565k, possibly a repeat of last week’s 555k. The second anticipated repeat is for another surge in negotiated fed cattle prices. Last week’s price jumped almost $5/cwt and packers were unable to improve their inventory position—even with extremely low through-put.”
The national weekly direct beef type price distribution for the week of April 21-28 was the following on a live basis:
• Negotiated purchases: $215.68.
• Formula net purchases: $212.88.
• Forward contract net purchases: $197.44.
• Negotiated grid net purchases: $216.65.
On a dressed basis:
• Negotiated purchases: $341.46.
• Formula net purchases: $332.84.
• Forward contract net purchases: $312.90.
• Negotiated grid net purchases: $339.30.
Today’s slaughter is estimated to be 120,000 head, 3,000 head below the previous week.
Boxed beef prices were mixed on 101 loads, with the Choice cutout up $5.49 to $348.26 and the Select cutout down $1.30 to $323.82.
Feeder cattle
Feeder cattle futures closed triple digits higher, with the May contract up $2.22 to $294.02 and the August contract up $1.95 to $296.90.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index was up $3.83 to $293.71.
Corn futures closed near their 3-month low, with the May contract down 15 cents to $4.60 and the July contract down 13 cents to $4.70.
Nebraska: Tri-State Livestock in McCook sold 600 head on Monday. Compared to the last auction, there was a short run, with cattle over 600 lbs. being higher. A group of steers averaging 845 lbs. sold for $297.50. — Charles Wallace, WLJ contributing editor
