Live cattle are 35 cents to $1.20 in the red at midday. Cash trade saw some very light volume $260 live and $408 dressed in the north on Wednesday, with a few bids at $255. The Friday morning Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed no sales on the 1,636 head offered, with $255 bids. Feeder cattle futures are down $3.47 to $3.70 so far. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was up $6.03 on June 24 to $381.86.
Cold Storage data from Thursday afternoon showed beef stocks at the end of May at 403.474 million lbs. That was a drop of 1.06% from last year and down 0.49% from the end of April.
Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were lower in the Friday AM report, with the Chc/Sel spread at $19.69. Choice boxes were down $4.22 at $392.10, with Select $2.33 lower to $372.41. USDA’s federally inspected cattle slaughter for Thursday was estimated at 109,000 head, with the weekly total at 433,000 head. That was up 7,000 from the previous week but 18,966 head below the same week last year.
Jun 26 Live Cattle are at $257.050, down $0.350,
Aug 26 Live Cattle are at $246.025, down $1.200,
Oct 26 Live Cattle are at $239.250, down $1.375,
Aug 26 Feeder Cattle are at $369.825, down $3.475
Sep 26 Feeder Cattle are at $367.700, down $3.675
Oct 26 Feeder Cattle are at $364.825, down $3.525
