Live Cattle Market Faces Steep Declines Amid Diminishing Cash Trade
Live cattle futures are experiencing notable losses as midday trading sees drops of $3 to $4.65. Cash trade in the North has been sparse, with prices settling at $208—down $2-4 compared to last week. In the South, sales reported at $205-206 indicate a decline of $2-3 from the prior week. In the Thursday morning Fed Cattle Exchange auction, 711 of the 1,422 cattle offered were sold at a live price of $206 and $208-208.50 through the BidTheGrid™ method. Feeder cattle futures also fell, dropping $5.50 to $6.05 during the session. The CME Feeder Cattle Index is down 42 cents from the previous day, now at $279.03 on February 4.
USDA Export Sales Show Promising January Numbers
According to the USDA’s Export Sales report, a total of 24,907 metric tons were sold in the week ending January 30, marking a calendar year high. This figure represents a 23.51% increase from the previous week and is the highest sales total since August. Notably, South Korea purchased 3,900 metric tons, while Japan accounted for 3,300 metric tons. Even though export shipments decreased by 7.65% to 19,845 metric tons compared to last week, they are still higher by 23.34% than the same week last year. South Korea remained the top destination with 5,700 metric tons, followed closely by Japan at 5,000 metric tons.
Mixed Wholesale Boxed Beef Prices Reported by USDA
In the USDA’s Thursday morning report on wholesale Boxed Beef prices, results were mixed, with the Choice/Select spread at $8.81. Choice cuts fell by $1.89, now priced at $323.45 per hundredweight, while Select cuts rose 31 cents to $314.65. USDA estimated a federally inspected cattle slaughter count of 121,000 head for Wednesday, bringing the total for the week to date to 358,000 head. This figure is 4,000 head lower than last week and down 16,717 head from the same week last year.
Current Futures Prices
Feb 25 Live Cattle: $200.550, down $3.050
Apr 25 Live Cattle: $196.650, down $4.650
Jun 25 Live Cattle: $191.875, down $4.025
Mar 25 Feeder Cattle: $264.675, down $6.050
Apr 25 Feeder Cattle: $264.525, down $5.950
May 25 Feeder Cattle: $263.300, down $5.500
On the date of publication, Austin Schroeder did not hold any positions in the mentioned securities. All information in this article is provided for informational purposes only. For further details, please refer to the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
More news from Barchart
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Nasdaq, Inc.
