Cattle futures basically paddled in place Tuesday, awaiting the week’s cash direction.
Live Cattle futures closed an average of 33¢ lower.
Feeder Cattle futures closed narrowly mixed, from an average of 14¢ lower in three contracts to an average of 16¢ higher.
Negotiated cash fed cattle trade ranged from mostly inactive on light demand to a standstill, with too few transactions to trend, through Tuesday afternoon, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service.
Last week, FOB live prices were $183 in the Texas Panhandle, $182-$183 in Kansas, $183 in Nebraska and $182-$184 in the western Corn Belt. Dressed delivered prices were $292 in Nebraska and $290-$292 in the western Corn Belt.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was 5¢ lower Tuesday afternoon at $301.74/cwt. Select was $2.41 higher at $290.40/cwt.
Corn futures closed fractionally higher to 3¢ higher.
KC HRW Wheat futures closed mostly 8¢ to 9¢ higher.
Soybean futures closed 2¢ to 4¢ higher through near Aug and then mostly unchanged to fractionally lower.
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Major U.S. financial indices closed narrowly mixed on Tuesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 96 points lower. The S&P 500 closed 8 points higher. The NASDAQ was up 59 points.
West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures (CME) closed 81¢ to $1.29 higher through the front six contracts.
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Beef in cold storage continues to decline, according to USDA’s most recent Cold Storage report.
Total pounds of beef in freezers Jan. 31 were 1% less than the previous month and 11% less than the same time a year earlier.
Frozen pork supplies were up 10% from the prior month but down 10% from the previous year.
Total red meat supplies in freezers were 4% more than the previous month but 11% less than last year.
Total frozen poultry supplies were 1% more than the previous month but 4% less than a year earlier. Chicken supplies were down and turkey supplies were up.