Negotiated cash fed cattle trade ranged from a standstill to mostly inactive on light demand through Tuesday afternoon, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service.
Last week’s five-area direct average steer price was $2.19 higher on a live basis at $125.47/cwt. The average steer price in the beef was 5¢ higher at $200.68.
Cattle futures closed mixed Tuesday. Follow-through support prevailed through most of the session.
Live Cattle closed mainly higher, boosted by the cash outlook and the 13,688-contract increase in open interest the previous day.
Live Cattle futures closed an average of 47¢ higher, except for an average of 45¢ lower in the front two contracts.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was 45¢ lower Tuesday afternoon at $347.58/cwt. Select was $2.50 lower at $316.90.
Rising Corn futures prices, as well as likely position squaring and profit taking pressured Feeder Cattle.
Feeder Cattle futures closed an average of 81¢ lower, except for 37¢ higher in spot Aug.
Corn and Soybean futures closed higher Tuesday, supported by crop conditions in the weekly Crop Progress report (see below).
Corn futures closed mostly 6¢ to 9¢ higher.
Soybean futures closed 30¢ to 43¢ higher through Aug ’22 and then mostly 23¢ to 28¢ higher.
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Major U.S. financial indices closed higher Tuesday, buoyed by follow-through support from FDA’s full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 30 points higher. The S&P 500 closed 6 points higher. The NASDAQ was up 77 points.
Crude Oil futures (WTI-CME) continued to climb, up $1.83 to $1.91 through the front six contracts.
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Total pounds of beef in freezers July 31 were down slightly from the previous month and down 9% from last year, according to USDA’s monthly Cold Storage report.
Frozen pork supplies were up slightly from the previous month but down 4% from last year.
Total red meat supplies in freezers were up slightly from the previous month but down 8% from last year.
Total frozen poultry supplies were 2% more than last month but 17% less year over year.
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Nationally, pasture and range conditions continue to erode slightly for the week ending Aug. 22, according to the latest USDA Crop Progress report.
29% of pasture and range was rated as Good (23%) or Excellent (6%), which was the same as the previous week and 5% more than a year earlier. Conversely, 43% was rated as Poor (21%) or Very Poor (22%), which was 1% less than a week earlier and 1% more than a year earlier.
85% of corn was in the dough stage, which was 1% less than last year, but 4% more than the average. 41% was dented, the same as last year and 3% more than the average. 4% was mature, which was 1% less than last year but on par with average. 60% was in Good (46%) or Excellent (14%) condition, which was 2% less than the previous week and 4% less than a year earlier.
97% of soybeans were blooming, which 2% less than last year but the same as the five-year average. 88% were setting pods, which was 3% less than last year but 1% more than average. 3% were dropping leaves, compared to 4% last year and 3% for average. 56% were in Good (45%) or Excellent (11%) condition, which was 1% less than a week earlier and 13% less than the same week last year.
77% of spring wheat was harvested, which was 31% more than the previous year and 22% more than the five-year average.