8 May 2013

2 minute read

North America

Live cattle faced pressure from followthrough selling after a low-range close Monday. Concerns about a short-term top in the boxed beef and cash cattle markets added to the price pressure.

June cattle closed moderately lower on the day and pushed down to the lowest level since April 23rd. The market managed to trade slightly higher on the day into the mid-session but the buying faded and sellers were active late in the day.

Talk of the discount of futures to the cash market helped to provide underlying support. Talk that the beef market is about to seasonally peak has been seen as a potential bearish force over the past few sessions and this has helped spark fairly aggressive selling and even an increase in open interest on the first two days of the three-day break.

The deferred contracts seem to have led the early break but stabilized to close moderately lower on the day with December cattle down to the lowest level since April 16th. Traders see a slightly higher showlist this week as a reason to suspect steady to lower cash trade.

On the other hand, traders indicate that the record high beef price could be a factor to support demand for live inventory from the packer.

Boxed-beef cut-out values at mid-session came in at $200.42 which is up 16 cents on the day and up from $196.39 last week at this time.

Select beef was up 69 cents.

Slaughter came in above trade expectations at 125,000 head.