Slaughter steers and heifers sold mostly $2-$4 higher at Sioux Falls Regional in South Dakota on Wednesday, with instances of $6 higher. Choice 2-3 steers brought $124-$126/cwt., which was $1-$3 more than last week’s country trade.
There were just 494 head offered in the weekly Fed Cattle Exchange Auction—no takers. One lot of heifers for current delivery was a P.O. at $123.75.
That helped Live Cattle futures close a touch higher on Wednesday, while profit taking and positioning ahead of Friday’s monthly Cattle on Feed report pressured Feeder Cattle.
Live Cattle futures closed an average of 26¢ higher (unchanged to 70¢ higher in spot Feb).
Feeder Cattle futures closed an average of 57¢ lower (42¢ to $1.07 lower).
Wholesale beef values were firm to higher on moderate to good demand and light to moderate offerings. Choice boxed beef cutout value was $1.14 higher on Wednesday afternoon at $207.99/cwt. Select 69¢ higher at $200.85.
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Major U.S. financial indices closed mixed on Wednesday. Mostly positive quarterly earnings reports continued to provide support. Some of the drag may have come from investors wondering to what degree current valuations are real or oversold.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 41 points higher. The S&P 500 closed 1 point lower. The NASDAQ closed 45 points lower.
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Total pounds of beef in freezers Dec. 31 were up 1% from the previous month but 14% less than a year earlier, according to USDA’s monthly Cold Storage report issued yesterday.
Frozen pork supplies were down 2% from the previous month but up 3% from last year.
So, total red meat supplies in freezers were down 1% from the previous month and down 6% from last year.
Total frozen poultry supplies were up 1% from the previous month and up 10% from a year ago.
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Heading into Friday’s monthly Cattle on Feed report, most popular estimates are for December placements to be 3-4% less than last year. Part of that expectation stems from dry conditions pushing more cattle to feedlots earlier the past couple of months.
For instance, Allendale, Inc. expects to see a decline in placements of 3.9%. If so, analysts there say it would be noteworthy, given the increases of 10.2% to 13.9% the past three months.
Allendale pegs December marketings at 1.5% less than last year, which would still make it the second largest total for the month in six years.
Put it all together and Allendale suggests the on-feed total Jan. 1 will be 7.6% more than a year earlier at 11.415 million head.