Cattle Complex Continues To Be Red Hot

An article on DTN/Progressive Farmer

PHEW! I was personally concerned that, after seeing Thursday's USDA Cattle on Feed report, the market would see the conflicting report details and send the market trailing lower. But once again, this time around the traders seem to only be concerned about how the actual report numbers differed from the pre-report estimates -- and because on Thursday there was a mere 0.3% difference on the total number of cattle on feed as of June 1 -- traders deemed that enough of a bullish reason to allow the contracts to trade higher throughout Monday's market.

But along with the Cattle on Feed report that came out June 18, the recent increased strength of the equity markets has helped drive the live cattle contracts higher -- to the point they're currently challenging the resistance levels scored back in April. And, last but certainly not least, it would be remiss of me to not mention that last week's fed cash cattle market has also greatly influenced traders early this week. It's as although packers and feedlot managers waited until the week's bitter end to trade cattle: Prices were indeed higher. Both live and dressed deals waited to develop until the end of the week, but Southern live cattle traded at mostly $258 to $260, which is $2 to $5 higher than the previous week's weighted average, and Northern dressed cattle traded anywhere from $408 to $410, but mostly at $408 which is $3 higher than the prior week's weighted average.

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