CME: Futures Have Volatile Day Ending Narrowly Mixed

US - Live cattle futures saw two-sided trade on Wednesday and ended narrowly mixed, which was good for a mid- to high-range close, write market analysts at CME and Profarmer.
calendar icon 24 January 2013
clock icon 2 minute read

The cattle market saw another rollercoaster trading session with volatile trading action.

Traders had hoped to see "steady-at-best" cash trade this week but news of Texas cash trade at $122.00, three dollars lower than last week helped to spark another round of long liquidation selling into the mid-session, according to Profarmer.

After trading slightly higher on the day just ahead of the pit opening, disappointing news from the monthly Cold Storage report and talk that Russia may ban all US and Canadian meat due to use of feed additive were factors which might have contributed to the increased selling pressure as well.

Fund long liquidation selling was activated as support levels were violated. Talk that traders were looking for increased placements for the cattle-on-feed for December (for release Friday) added to the negative tone. Traders see December placements near 4 per cent higher than the previous year and sluggish December marketings.

Placements have been down from the previous year for six months in a row.

Talk that short-term supply is still relatively high due to near record weights plus recent beef weakness plus continued weak packer margins are seen as other short-term negative forces.

However, the market managed to trade all the way back up to higher on the day late in the trading session.

Boxed-beef cut-out values at mid-session were down $0.68 to $189.91 from $193.46 last week.

Select beef fell 73 cents to $183.17 from $184.92 last week at this time.

Slaughter came below trade expectations at 126,000 head.

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