7 May 2013

2 minute read

North America

The low-range close gives bears the upper hand heading into tomorrow's session. Futures started the day firmer as traders reacted to Friday's rise to an all-time high in the boxed beef market, according to ProFarmer markets experts.

But Choice beef values softened $1.26 this morning on slow movement, raising concerns that high prices are curbing demand.

June cattle closed sharply lower on the day but faired better than the December and February contracts which closed sharply lower on the day, write analysts at CME.

The market pushed moderately higher early in the session today with plenty of talk that the break on Friday was overdone.

Talk of record high beef prices, the discount of futures to cash and the outlook for active demand from restaurants and retailers to stock up on beef for the more active demand weekends ahead helped to support the market early.

August closed at a 600-700 point discount to the cash market on Friday as compared with the 5-year average discount of about 150-200 points.

The COT reports as of April 30th showed Non-Commercial traders were net long 33,948 contracts, an increase of 6,775 contracts for the week and the buying trend is seen as a short-term positive force. Monthly beef exports for March were reported at just 188.56 million pounds from 194.5 million last year.

There were 3 new deliveries. Boxed-beef cut-out values at mid-session were down $1.26 to $200.42 as compared with $194.79 last week at this time.

Slaughter came in slightly above trade expectations at 122,000 head.