Sluggish cash fed cattle on Thursday continued mainly $1-$3 lower than the previous week at $117-$118 on limited trade and light demand.
More than anything, it appeared that light trade enabled Cattle futures to shrug off early pressure to close higher.
Except for unchanged and 20¢ higher in the front two contracts, Live Cattle futures closed an average of 70¢ higher (42¢ to 90¢ higher).
Feeder Cattle futures closed an average of $1.56 higher ($1.35 to $1.87 higher).
Choice boxed beef cutout value was 64¢ lower Thursday afternoon at $206.43/cwt. Select was $1.21 lower at $196.66.
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Apparently profit taking balanced optimism on Wall Street, as the tech-based NASAQ closed lower, despite positive quarterly earnings, including Facebook.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 85 points. The S&P 500 closed 2 points lower. The NASDAQ closed 40 points lower.
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Further perspective on the mid-year cattle inventory report from USDA last week:
“Although it’s not clear from the report that beef industry expansion has come to a grinding halt, it does suggest expansion interest is waning,” says James Mintert, agricultural economist at Purdue University, in the University of Illinois’ Farmdoc Daily earlier tis week. “For example, the number of beef heifers being held by producers for herd replacement July 1 was 2% smaller than in 2015 and, when expressed as a percentage of the beef cow inventory totaled just 14.5%. In contrast, when the beef industry was expanding rapidly this ratio climbed above 15%. Additionally, the ratio of female (cow and heifer) slaughter relative to steer slaughter has been above a year ago five out of the last six months, the exception occurring in February. The increase in female relative to steer slaughter suggests herd expansion has slowed, if it has not actually come to a complete halt.”