Cattle futures bounced higher Thursday with support from bullish outside markets and perhaps with some positioning ahead of Friday’s monthly Cattle on Feed report.
Heading into the close, Live Cattle futures were an average of 94¢ higher. Feeder Cattle futures an average of $2.64 higher.
Negotiated cash fed cattle trade ranged from mostly inactive on light demand to a standstill through Thursday afternoon, with too few transactions to trend, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service.
Last week, live FOB prices were $181/cwt. in the Texas Panhandle, $180-$181 in Kansas, $181-$182 in Nebraska and $182-$183 in the western Corn Belt. Dressed delivered prices were $288-$294.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was $1.82 lower Thursday afternoon at $299.56/cwt. Select was $1.49 lower at $288.26.
Net 2024 U.S. beef export sales of 15,500 metric tons for the week ending Sept. 12 were 36% more than the previous week and 2% more than the prior four-week average, according to USDA’s weekly report. Increases were primarily for South Korea, China, Japan, Canada and Mexico.
Harvest pressure and anemic export sales weighed on grain futures Thursday.
Toward the close and through Jly ’25 contracts, Corn futures were 5¢ to 7¢ lower. Kansas City Wheat futures were 11¢ to 13¢ lower. Soybean futures were mostly fractionally lower to 1¢ lower.
******************************
Major U.S. financial indices closed sharply higher Thursday, fueled by the previous day’s interest rate cut by the Fed and fewer weekly initial unemployment claims than expected.
For the week ending September 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 219,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week’s revised level, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 522 points higher. The S&P 500 closed 93 points higher. The NASDAQ was up 440 points.
Through mid-afternoon, West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures on the CME were 82¢ to $1.16 higher through the front six contracts.
******************************
Forecasters estimate a 71% chance of a short-lived La Niña emerging during September-November and persisting through January-March 2025, according to the latest update from the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center.
In the meantime, dryness continues to expand across the nation, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor.
Abnormally dry or drought conditions encompassed 70.3% of the continental U.S. compared to 55.6% at the same time last year. However, moderate to exceptional drought existed in 35.6% of the nation versus 37.8% a year earlier. Overall, 35% of the nation’s cattle were in drought areas compared to 45% at the same time last year.