Cattle Shift Focus to New Week After Hitting Fresh All Time Highs
Live cattle futures pushed all-time highs even further into the close on Friday, rallying to new highs and up $1.55 to $3.40 on the day. June was up $10.82 last week. Preliminary open interest was down 18,869 contracts on Friday, with June down 18,088 contracts. Today is first notice day for June live cattle. Cash trade last week saw wide ranges mostly $230-232 in the South and topping near $235. North action was mostly $240-242, reaching $244 in some spots. Feeder cattle futures saw more modest gains, but closed up 82 cents to $1, with August up $11.32 last week. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was up $1.30 on June 5 with an average price of $306.16.
Large managed money speculators in live cattle futures and options added 512 contracts to their net long position of 131,805 contracts in the week ending on June 3rd. As of Tuesday, managed money was net long 34,827 contracts, a record, and an increase of 1,569 contracts during that week.
USDA’s National Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were mixed again on Friday afternoon, narrowing the Chc/Sel spread to $8.35. Choice boxes were back down $1.77 at $365.08, while Select was quoted 12 cents higher at $356.73/cwt. USDA’s Federally inspected cattle slaughter for last week at 582,000 head. That is down 27,797 head from the same week last year.
Jun 25 Live Cattle closed at $226.300, up $3.400,
Aug 25 Live Cattle closed at $218.875, up $2.050,
Oct 25 Live Cattle closed at $215.525, up $1.550,
Aug 25 Feeder Cattle closed at $310.150, up $1.000,
Sep 25 Feeder Cattle closed at $309.125, up $0.825,
Oct 25 Feeder Cattle closed at $306.900, up $0.825,
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.