Feeder Cattle led the rout in Cattle futures on Wednesday, just a day after significant support. Other than eroding wholesale beef values and the step lower in early cash fed cattle trade, emotion, technicals and algorithms might offer some explanation as fundamentals remain unchanged.
There were only 1,184 head offered in the weekly Fed Cattle Exchange auction—mostly from the Southern Plains—and zero takers.
Though too few to trend, there were some dressed trades reported in Nebraska and Iowa-Minnesota on Wednesday at $175-$177/cwt. That’s sharply lower than the previous week, but steady to $2 higher than earlier-week sales.
Live Cattle futures closed an average of $1.24 lower across a broad range (42¢ to $2.07 lower).
Feeder Cattle futures closed an average of $3.31 lower ($2.80 to $3.62 lower), basically giving back everything gained in the previous session; yet, a little higher week to week.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was $1.44 lower Wednesday afternoon at $197.51/cwt. Select was 83¢ lower at $195.04.
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