Cattle futures softened Wednesday with pressure including the lack of weekly cash direction and a sharp decline in wholesale beef values.
Heading into the close, Live Cattle futures were an average of 67¢ lower. Feeder Cattle futures were narrowly mixed from an average of 44¢ lower to an average of 11¢ higher.
Negotiated cash fed cattle trade ranged from inactive on very light demand to a standstill through Wednesday afternoon, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service.
Last week, FOB live prices were $183/cwt. in the Texas Panhandle $183-$184 in Kansas, $184 in Nebraska and $184-$188 in the western Corn Belt. Dressed delivered prices were $293-$295.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was $4.68 lower Wednesday afternoon, at $307.29/cwt. Select was $2.62 lower at $297.63.
Grain futures were mixed Wednesday.
Toward the close and through Jly ’25 contracts, Corn futures were 2¢ lower.
Kansas City Wheat futures were 7¢ to 11¢ higher on apparent short covering. Soybean futures were 7¢ to 10¢ lower.
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Major U.S. financial indices closed lower Wednesday, pressured by tech stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 159 points lower. The S&P 500 closed 33 points lower. The NASDAQ was down 198 points.
At midafternoon, West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures on the CME were $1.15 to $1.21 lower through the front six contracts.
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Creighton University’s Rural Mainstreet Index (RMI) sank below growth neutral in August for the 12thconsecutive month. The region’s overall reading for August sank to 40.9 from 41.3 in July. It was the lowest reading since November of last year. The index ranges between 0 and 100, with a reading of 50.0 representing growth neutral. The RMI is based on a monthly survey of bank CEOs in rural areas of a 10-state region dependent on agriculture and/or energy.
Weak agriculture commodity prices, sinking agriculture equipment sales and declining farm exports weighed on the rural economy, according to Ernie Goss, , Jack A. MacAllister Chair in Regional Economics at Creighton University’s Heider College of Business.
“The sad part is that most of our farmers will lose money or just break even due to poor commodity prices,” explains Jim Eckert, CEO of Anchor State Bank in Anchor, Ill.
Bankers were asked to compare the current business environment in their area to that prior to Covid-19. Approximately 22.8% reported business conditions were worse while 18.2% indicated business conditions were improved compared to pre-Covid. The remaining 59.0% indicated conditions had barely changed.
Rural bankers remain very pessimistic about economic growth for their area over the next six months. The August confidence index slumped to 27.3 from 28.3 in July.