Cattle Consolidated on Friday while Lean Hogs got Hit Hard
Livestock traders are gearing up for the last trading day of the month, these are the levels to keep an eye on this week.
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Live Cattle (April)
April live cattle futures were in consolidation mode on Friday, as traders awaited new news in the form of a Cattle on Feed report. That report was neutral/bullish in our estimates, whether or not the market reacts to it at all today is still TBD. Technical support remains intact from 193.025-193.075, a break and close below there and we could see another round of long liquidation. With that said, from a risk/reward standpoint the buyside does look fairly attractive here in the short term. If the Bulls can reclaim ground above our pivot pocket from 194.45-195.47, we could see a greater effort for the board to converge with cash.
Resistance: 199.70-200.00***, 201.975-203.00***
Pivot: 194.45-195.47
Support: 193.025-193.075**, 189.80-190.75***
Cattle on Feed
On Feed: 99.3% VS Estimates from 98.8 – 99.9%
Placements: 101.70% VS Estimates from 100.0 – 106.1
Marketings: 101.4% VS Estimates from 101.3 – 102.5
-We’d consider this to be a Neutral/Bullish report.
Daily Cattle and Beef Summary
Cutout values were lower on Friday afternoon with choice cuts 1.86 lower to 310.77 and select cuts .62 lower to 302.56. Friday’s slaughter was reported at 107k head. That put the week to date total at 554k, 35k less than the same period last year.
The CME feeder Cattle Index is at 278.84 with the NBW Real-Time Index showing 285.00 as of this morning.
Seasonal Tendency Update
(updated 2.24.25)
Below is a look at historical price averages for April futures on a 5, 10, 15, 20, and 30 year time frames (Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results).
Commitment of Traders Update
Friday’s Commitment of Traders report showed Funds net long 128,469 futures and options contracts, the third week of net selling.
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