Live cattle futures are up $1.50 to $2 so far on Wednesday. Cash trade has yet to take place this week. The Wednesday Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed no sales on the 1,508 head offered, with bids of $217.5-220 live and $325-326 in the beef. Feeder cattle futures are continuing to rally back this morning, with gains of $3.35 to $3.90. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was up $12.66 to $332.36 on December 1.
Updated CFTC data for the week of October 21 showed managed money in live cattle futures and options increasing their net long by 1,147 contracts to 124,901 contracts. In feeder cattle, they trimmed 797 contracts from their net long to 24,727 contracts.
USDA reported Wholesale Boxed Beef prices higher in the Wednesday AM report, with the Chc/Sel spread narrowing back down to $12.31. Choice boxes were up 68 cents to $365.40, while Select was back up $2.31 at $353.09. USDA federally inspected cattle slaughter was estimated at 122,000 head for Tuesday, with the weekly total at 237,000. That was 8,000 head below last week and 6,214 head shy of the same week last year.
Dec 25 Live Cattle are at $219.975, up $1.500,
Feb 26 Live Cattle are at $222.725, up $1.925,
Apr 26 Live Cattle are at $224.050, up $1.625,
Jan 26 Feeder Cattle are at $333.750, up $3.875
Mar 26 Feeder Cattle are at $327.450, up $3.525
Apr 26 Feeder Cattle are at $326.650, up $3.350
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.
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