Cattle futures continued lower on Thursday, pressured by lower wholesale beef values, sharply lower cash fed cattle prices and increasing skittishness about prices and demand through the summer.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was $2.54 lower Thursday afternoon at $242.88/cwt. Select was $1.98 lower at $216.92.
Live Cattle futures closed an average of 89¢ lower (57¢ to $1.15 lower).
Feeder Cattle futures closed an average of 96¢ lower across the front half of the board and then an average of 40¢ lower.
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Major U.S. financial indices closed narrowly mixed on Thursday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 12 points lower. The S&P 500 closed 1 point lower. The NASDAQ closed 2 points higher.
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USDA’s monthly Cold Storage report should provide no pressure to beef prices, maybe even a little support.
Total pounds of beef in freezers May 31 were 10% less than the previous month and 11% less than the previous year.
Frozen pork supplies were down slightly from the previous month and down 4% from last year.
All told, total red meat supplies in freezers were down 5% from the previous month and down 7% from last year.
Total frozen poultry supplies on May 31, 2017 were up 4% from the previous month and up 4% from a year ago.