Live cattle futures fell back $3.50 to $3.75 on Wednesday. Open interest dropped 2,922 contracts on the day, mostly out of the December contracts. A few cash sales in the north have been reported at $218-220 this week, with $224 in the South. The Wednesday morning Fed Cattle Exchange online auction s showed no sales on the 1,576 head offered and bids at $220-221 live and $340 dressed. Feeder cattle futures closed with $4.50 to $5 losses in the nearbys and November up $1.07 ahead of Thursday’s expiration. Open interest suggested new selling interest, up 1,268 contracts. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was back up 56 cents to $340.02 on November 18.
Census trade data for August was released on Wednesday, with a total of 190.7 million lbs of beef exports during August, which was the lowest for any month since June 2020 and the lowest for August since 2015.
