Livestock Markets in Focus after a Choppy Trade on Friday
A choppy livestock trade on Friday ahead of the Cattle on Feed report and weekend of geopolitical uncertainty. Where does that leave us on the charts to start the last full week of the quarter?
Live Cattle (August)
Live cattle futures attempted to recover on Friday but that strength fizzled out and turned to weakness and a lower close. The chart is starting to look more bearish after last week , but fundamentals remain pretty stout in the near term. Some of the weakness in Friday’s trade may have came on the back of position squaring ahead of the cattle on feed report and ahead of a weekend where geopolitical risks filled the air with uncertainty. The CoF report was mostly neutral and outside markets are calm in the early morning trade.
Resistance: 216.00-216.075***, 220.00-220.25**
Pivot: 212.10-213.05
Support: 206.95**, 205.30-205.40***, 203.52-204.07****
Daily Cattle and Beef Summary
Cutout values were mixed on Friday afternoon with choice cuts 3.29 lower to 390.50 and select cuts 2.36 higher to 376.95. Slaughter on Friday was reported at 102k head, 16k less than the same day last year. The 5-area average price for live steers was reported at 236.20. The CME Feeder Cattle Index is at 310.99 with the NBW Real Time Index at 309.96 this morning.
Cattle on Feed VS Estimates
On Feed: 99% VS EST 98.1-99.6%, AVG 99.%
Placements: 92% VS EST 88.0-97.7%, AVG 94.9%
Marketings: 90% VS EST 89.3-95.0%, AVG 90.3%
Seasonal Tendency Update
(updated 6.23.25)
Below is a look at historical price averages for August 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
*Updated data will be released this afternoon, due to last week’s mid-week Holiday.
Friday’s Commitment of Traders report showed Funds were net buyers of roughly 6.2k futures and options contracts, brining the net long to 137,836. A historically lofty position but still below the All Time High record that was set at the end of January, 156,909.


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