Live cattle futures are trading with 60 to 90 cent losses at midday. Cash trade has picked up a few at $355-360 dressed and $223-227. The Friday morning Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed no sales on the 1,520 head offered, with bids of $223 to $224. Feeder cattle futures are down 62 cents to $1.50 across most contracts at midday, pulling off early lows. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was down another 51 cents on August 19 to $341.85.
Early this morning President Trump stated the US “will allow up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef to be imported with no out of quota tariffs” for 90 days.