Download PDF It should have been a quiet holiday week in the cattle and beef markets. The cutouts were up a little, the cattle market was down a little, but the futures market threw a hissy fit again and some of the front contracts lost almost $6 over the course of the four-day week. It …
Download PDF Live cattle futures settled down this week following the rout that took place last week. All contracts finished $1-2/cwt. higher than the week before. Whether or not that was justified remains to be seen because both the cutout and cash cattle moved lower. The Choice cutout dropped $4.46/cwt. to average $295.69 and the …
Download PDF Cash cattle trade was slow to develop this week and as of press time, packers and feeders in the Southern Plains remained in a standoff. Some light trade did occur in the North, with reported prices at mostly $185, which was steady with the week before. It was widely expected that cash trade …
Download PDF This week was highlighted by a massive selloff in cattle futures. On Monday, the Dec LC contract fell below its 100-day moving average and that triggered a wave of selling that took most of the curve down $5-6/cwt. The initial impetus for the selling was the previous Friday’s Cattle on Feed report which …
Download PDF Packers did manage to achieve modest increases in the cutout this week with the Choice gaining $3.28/cwt. on a weekly average basis and the Select adding $2.18/cwt. Unfortunately for packers, that probably won’t help their bottom line much because they ended up pay more for cash cattle once again. In the Southern Plains, …
Download PDF If packers thought that buying a lot of cattle last week was going to help them pressure the cattle market this week, it didn’t work. Having no luck getting cattle bought at steady money, packers upped the bid on Wednesday and trade occurred in the South at mostly $183, $1 higher than the …
Download PDF Prices in the beef complex eased a little lower this week with the Choice cutout losing $0.92/cwt. and the Select cutout dropping $2.71/cwt. The Choice cutout averaged $299.94 for the week, the first sub-$300 average since mid-May. The cash cattle market reacted very similarly to the week before when a downdraft in the …
Download PDF The spread between cattle prices in the North and South narrowed further this week as live cash trade in the North was about $1-2 lower than the week before while trade in the South was fully steady at $183/cwt. It looks like the average of all live sales was close to $183.80, which …
Download PDF Packer margins sank deeper in the red this week as the cutouts moved lower while cash cattle traded a little bit stronger. The Choice cutout dropped $4.76/cwt. to average $302.79 and the Select cutout was down $4.62/cwt. to average $280.66. Rounds and loins were the biggest hinderance to the cutout this week, but …
Download PDF The cash cattle market broke out of its trading range to the upside this week, with live trade in the South reported at $182-183/cwt., which was up $2-3/cwt. from last week. In the North, trade was mostly $1-2 higher at $184-185/cwt. The price spread between the North and South continues to narrow. What …