Follow through buying, a bump in wholesale beef values and notions of snugger short-term supply due to weather helped Cattle futures continue to gain on Tuesday.
Live Cattle futures closed an average of 71¢ higher (52¢ to $1.17 higher in spot Feb).
Feeder Cattle futures closed an average of $1.40 higher (72¢ to $1.90 higher).
Boxed beef cutout values were firm to higher on moderate to good demand and light to moderate offerings. Choice boxed beef cutout value was $1.78 higher on Tuesday afternoon at $206.85/cwt. Select 64¢ higher at $200.16.
******************************
Major U.S. financial indices closed mostly higher on Tuesday, supported once again by better than expected quarterly earning reports.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 3 points lower. The S&P 500 closed 6 points higher. The NASDAQ closed 52 points higher.
******************************
Expect an expanding global economy, strong U.S. consumer confidence and persistent economic recovery in many rural areas, according to the 2018 outlook report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange Division.
“The rural economy is uniquely impacted by what happens in Washington, the broader U.S. economy and around the world,” says Dan Kowalski, vice president of CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange Division. “In the coming year, rural America will rise with the broader economic tide, but it will also contend with persistent barriers to prosperity.”
The report highlights 10 key factors that will shape rural communities and the market sectors that support them. Among them, according to the report:
Global economy—“2018 will offer a prime opportunity for governments to address structural impediments that have been ignored during the decade-long recovery.”
U.S. economy—“Consumer confidence and the unemployment rate are at their best levels since 2000 and inflation-adjusted wages have been growing faster than the historical average since 2014…Business investment will rise in 2018 to keep up with strengthening demand.”
Agricultural economy—“The surplus of agricultural commodities will continue to depress prices and shrink farmer working capital. Farm debt loads will continue to climb as prices fall short of persistently high production costs. Market conditions have also resulted in a sharp, unsustainable divergence between farm income and farm asset values.”
Agricultural trade—“NAFTA will be the primary focus for agriculture in the first half of 2018. All three countries involved will be incentivized to come to an agreement before the Mexican presidential election in July. But more trade deals are in flux that could also greatly affect U.S. agriculture exporters. The rebooted TPP (CPTPP) is being negotiated between all of the original member-countries except the U.S. And the U.S. trade agreement with Korea is also being re-evaluated.”