Live cattle futures are showing contracts within 20 cents of unchanged at Thursday’s midday. Cash trade saw some light trade at $246 in the South, steady to up $1 from last week. The Thursday morning Central Stockyards Fed Cattle Exchange online auction saw $244-244.50 bids, though no sales on the 970 head offered. Feeder cattle futures are showing slight 50 to 85 cent gains at midday. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was back down 4 cents to $364.55 on April 7.
USDA’s Export Sales report showed 17,408 MT of beef sold in the week of 4/2, the third largest so far in the calendar year. Shipments were the lowest in 4 week at 13,321 MT.
