CME: December Cattle Traded Down on Thursday
US - December cattle traded slightly lower on the day into the pit opening and pushed sharply lower on the day into the mid-session and pushed down to the lowest level since August 12.
6 September 2013
1 minute read
October cattle is already down 3% from the August 16th highs as traders view the short-term, market-ready supply of cattle as adequate to surplus. This has helped to spark long liquidation selling in futures as speculators hold a hefty net long position in cattle and the futures are holding a premium to the cash market.
Boxed-beef cut-out values at mid-session were down 42 cents to $196.14 from $196.28 last week. Yesterday's beef was at the highest level since early July. Average dressed steer weights for the week ending August 24th came in at 866 pounds, up from 864 the previous week and down 1 pound from last year.
The 5-year average weekly weight for that week is 852.4. Beef production for the same week came in at 506.8 million pounds, down 1.84% from a year ago.
Slaughter came in higher than trade expectations at 125,000 head which can sometimes indicate strong demand from the packer.
TheCattleSite News Desk
