Cattle futures coasted to a narrowly mixed close on Friday, unable to muster much support since the mid-week selloff. Friday’s Cattle on Feed report (see below) indicating more January placements than the trade expected may add pressure early in the week.
Live Cattle futures closed narrowly mixed (55¢ lower to 22¢ higher).
Feeder Cattle futures closed narrowly mixed (52¢ lower at the back of the board to 42¢ higher in Apr).
Choice boxed beef cutout value was 3¢ lower on Friday afternoon at $218.37/cwt. Select was 76¢ higher at $212.82.
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Major U.S. financial indices closed sharply higher on Friday. Lower treasury yields on the day and higher crude oil prices provided support.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 347 points higher. The S&P 500 closed 43 points higher. The NASDAQ closed 127 points higher.
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Despite early cattle placements over the last several months, due to both the growing cowherd and drought, there were even more to place in January, year over year, according to Friday’s monthly Cattle on Feed report.
Rather than being even with or slightly less than the previous year, as expected by most, January placements of 2.07 million head were 4.4% more than the previous year. That’s 87,000 head more. About half were placed on feed at 700-899 lbs.; 38.9% at 699 lbs. or lighter; 9.7% weighing more than 900 lbs.
Marketings in January of 1.86 million head were 6.1% higher (107,000 head more) than the previous year. That was mostly in line with expectations ahead of the report.
Total cattle on feed Feb. 1 was 11.63 million head (+848,000 head), which was 7.9% more than a year earlier. That’s at the upper end of most estimates ahead of the report.