Cattle futures softened Thursday, with likely profit taking and no cash direction.
Before settlement, Live Cattle futures were an average of 55¢ lower, except for $1.47 higher and unchanged in the front two contracts. Feeder Cattle futures were an average of $1.01 lower, except for 15¢ higher in the back contract.
Negotiated cash fed cattle trade ranged from limited on light demand to a standstill through Thursday afternoon, with too few transactions to trend, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service.
Last week, FOB live prices were $189-$190/cwt. in the Texas Panhandle, $188-$191 in Kansas, and mainly $197-$198 in Nebraska and the western Corn Belt.
Dressed delivered prices were $310-$312 in Nebraska and $310 in the western Corn Belt with prices stretching as high as $314.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was 48¢ higher Thursday afternoon at $323.33/cwt. Select was 16¢ lower at $302.70/cwt.
Corn and Soybean futures were lower again Thursday with likely positioning ahead of Friday’s Acreage and Grain Stocks reports. Heading into the close, through Jly ’25 contracts, Corn futures were 1¢ to 10¢ lower. Kansas City Wheat futures were 11¢ to 13¢ higher. Soybean futures were mostly 2¢ to 10¢ lower.
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Major U.S. financial indices edged higher Thursday, ahead of key inflation data Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 36 points higher. The S&P 500 closed 4 points higher. The NASDAQ was up 53 points.
Heading into the close, West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures on the CME were 34¢ to 91¢ higher through the front six contracts.
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Prices for food away from home (FAFH) — eating out — grew more quickly over the last decade than food at home (FAH), and the overall rate of inflation, according to USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS).
“Prices for all consumer goods and services across the economy, as measured by the all-items Consumer Price Index, rose by 34.3% between January 2014 and May 2024,” ERS analysts say. “FAFH prices climbed steadily over the past decade and were 49.5% higher in May 2024 than January 2014, while prices for FAH, or groceries, rose 29.9%.”