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Cattle futures were attempting to recover from the midweek session early, but ultimately added to the drop with $0.90 to $1 losses. June fats were the firmest, going home only 22 cents in the red. Cash trade this week was $188-$194 in the North. Thursday’s feeder cattle market closed with futures $0.45 to $1.22 in the red. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was $219.28 on 6/6 after another 63 cent increase.
USDA reported 12,820 MT of beef was booked for export during the week that ended 6/1. That was a 29% drop from last week’s sale. Exports were shown at 15,352 MT for the week for a season’s total of 348,292 MT. Converted Census data has official beef exports through April at 1.047 billion pounds, with 267.6m lbs for the month.
Wholesale Boxed Beef prices for Thursday afternoon were shown at $328.73 for Choice and $304.10 for Select. That was a $3.54 increase in Choice and a $2.54 bump in Select. USDA estimated FI cattle slaughter for the week through Thursday at 495k head. That is 499k head behind last year’s pace.
Jun 23 Cattle closed at $178.775, down $0.225,
Aug 23 Cattle closed at $172.250, down $0.950,
Oct 23 Cattle closed at $174.700, down $0.925,
Aug 23 Feeder Cattle closed at $238.650, down $0.450
Sep 23 Feeder Cattle closed at $241.475, down $0.800
Oct 23 Feeder Cattle closed at $243.450, down $1.100
On the date of publication, Alan Brugler 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.