Cattle Showing Slight Gains Ahead of Cattle on Feed Report
Live cattle futures are posting Friday midday gains of 7 to 50 cents. Cash trade this week has improved ~$2 from last week, with Southern sales tallied at $190, with the North at $190-192. The Central Stockyards online Fed Cattle Exchange auction showed sales of 212 head on the 1,594 head at $190-191.50 this morning. Feeder cattle futures are up a nickel to 40 cents in the nearbys. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was back down $1.15 at $249.56 on October 23.
Ahead of this afternoon’s Cattle on Feed report, analysts are expecting to see September placements tallied at 96% of last year’s total, with marketings at 102% of the 2023 total. October 1 on feed inventory is expected to be down 0.3%.
USDA wholesale Boxed Beef prices were higher in the Friday morning report. Choice boxes were up 92 cents to $322.09/cwt, with Select 97 cents higher @ $295.31. The Chc/Select spread narrowed to $26.78. USDA estimated Thursday’s federally inspected cattle slaughter at 124,000 head, taking the week to date total to 491,000 head. That is 3,000 head below the previous week and down 10,785 head from the same week last year.
Oct 24 Live Cattle are at $189.725, up $0.425,
Dec 24 Live Cattle are at $189.325, up $0.075,
Feb 25 Live Cattle are at $190.050, up $0.100,
Oct 24 Feeder Cattle are at $249.775, up $0.375
Nov 24 Feeder Cattle are at $248.625, up $0.100
Jan 25 Feeder Cattle are at $245.575, up $0.050
On the date of publication, Austin Schroeder 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 Barchart Disclosure Policy here.