Stable Corn futures and strong cash trends helped Feeder Cattle futures lean mostly higher Thursday. They were up an average of 22¢, except for 17¢ lower and unchanged in two contracts.
Live Cattle futures closed an average of 74¢ lower (40¢ to $1.15 lower) with traders awaiting cash direction.
Negotiated cash fed cattle trade ranged from limited on light demand to a standstill through Thursday afternoon, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service.
Although too few to trend, there were a few live sales in the western Corn Belt at $165/cwt. — $164.50 to $165.00 on Wednesday. Dressed prices there last week were $260-$262.
Elsewhere, last week, live prices were mostly at $164/cwt. and dressed prices were $262.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was 67¢ higher Thursday afternoon at 288.50/cwt. Select was $1.15 higher at $277.58/cwt.
Weekly beef export sales offered no support to Cattle futures. For the week ending Feb. 23, net U.S. beef export sales were 8,100 metric tons (mt.), according to the latest USDA U.S. Export Sales report. That was 48% less than the previous week and 62% less than the prior four-week average. Increases were primarily for Japan, Taiwan, China and Mexico.
Corn futures closed narrowly mixed, mostly 1¢ lower to 1¢ higher.
KC HRW Wheat closed mostly 6¢ to 7¢ higher.
Soybean futures closed 8¢ to 15¢ higher through Jan ’24 and then mostly 4¢ to 6¢ higher.
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Major U.S. financial indices closed higher Thursday, fueled in part by comments made by one region Federal Reserve president who suggested the Fed could hold future interest rate hikes at 25 basis points.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 341 points higher. The S&P 500 closed 29 points higher. The NASDAQ was up 83 points.
West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures (CME) closed 47¢ to 57¢ higher through the front six contracts.
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U.S. agricultural exports in fiscal year (FY) 2023 were projected at $184.5 billion in the latest quarterly Outlook for U.S. Agricultural Trade from USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) and Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS). The projection was $5.5 billion less than the previous report’s estimate. The largest year-over year decreases are expected for corn, sorghum, and soybeans.
Beef and veal exports were forecast $300 million less at $10.0 billion on weaker unit values for fresh and frozen beef muscle cuts and softening demand in East Asia.
Total, livestock, poultry, and dairy exports were projected $900 million less at $40.5 billion.
“The global economic outlook for 2023 has moderately improved since the last forecast in November 2022, as downside risks of recession have lessened,” according to ERS/FAS analysts. “Inflation has begun to ease globally, particularly in the United States, but remains elevated. Economic growth is expected to remain steady but at a slower pace than in recent years. World real gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to increase by 2.8% in 2023…”
Projected growth for U.S. real GDP in 2023 was raised 0.4% to 1.4%.