Live cattle futures are firm to 70 cents in the red at midday. Cash trade was late last week, with Southern action at $244 and Northern sales from $239-243. Feeder cattle futures are steady to 20 cents lower in the front months. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was down another 38 cents to $372.79 on February 26. The OKC feeder cattle auction on Monday showed 5,500 head for sale. Early action is lower.
Weekly CFTC data from Friday showed a total of 2,296 contracts added to the managed money net long position as of Tuesday to 119,013 contracts. In feeder cattle futures and options, specs added 1,356 contracts to their net long as of 2/24 to 18,162 contracts.
Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were higher in the Monday morning report, with the Chc/Sel spread narrowing to $4.01. Choice boxes were up 65 cents to $380.49, while Select was $2.17 higher to $37648. USDA estimated last week’s federally inspected cattle slaughter at 516,000 head. That is even with the previous week and 52,747 head below than the same week last year.
Apr 26 Live Cattle are at $232.150, down $0.075,
Jun 26 Live Cattle are at $228.800, down $0.350,
Aug 26 Live Cattle are at $227.150, down $0.650,
Mar 26 Feeder Cattle are at $355.400, down $0.025
Apr 26 Feeder Cattle are at $351.000, down $0.200
May 26 Feeder Cattle are at $347.100, down $0.100
