CME: Futures Close 25 to 80 Cents Lower, Thursday
US - August Live Cattle closed 80 cents lower to close Thursday's trading on $123.35 leading losses for the day.
23 August 2013
1 minute read
Losses ranged from 25 cents as 'sharp losses' in hogs effected cattle values, according to ProFarmer analysts. They report that contiguous weeks of strong export sales of 16,100 MT show demand for US beef packages.
October cattle closed moderately lower and pushed below the lows of August 16th, write CME analysts. December and February cattle closed moderately lower as well but stayed inside of the August 16th range.
Experts commentators at CME added that slightly lower beef market and talk of the overbought condition helped to spark some long liquidation selling and weaker trade. Ideas that cash can trade higher this week has helped to provide some support this week but speculative longs took some profits ahead of the Cattle-on-Feed report for Friday afternoon.
Weakness in grains and hogs and a jump in the US dollar added to the negative tone. Weekly U.S. beef export sales for the week ending August 15th came in at 16,100 metric tonnes, compared with the prior 4-week average of 11,975.
Cumulative sales for 2013 have reached 519,300 metric tonnes, down 17.8 per cent from last year's pace.
Boxed-beef cut-out values at mid-session came in at $195.92, up 46 cents on the day and up from $193.30 last week. Slaughter came in right on trade expectations at 123,000 head.
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