At the close for Tuesday, front month fat cattle futures were 22 cents to $1.05 in the red with triple digit losses for Feb and April. Feeder cattle futures were down triple digits as well, closing $1.47 to $1.62 in the red. September futures closed 62 cents higher before Thursday’s expiration, @ $141.70. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was a $0.75 premium to Sept futures, at $142.45 for September 21. USDA reported very limited Tuesday cash sales from $105 live basis and $161-$164 dressed. Tomorrow’s FCE online cattle auction has 683 head listed. Trade estimates ahead of Friday’s CoF report are for 11.355 million head of cattle on feed on Sept 1. August marketings are estimated 4.3% to 2.5% below ’19, on one less marketing day. The average of analyst estimates has placements at 5.9% above 2019, with 1.995m head placed in August. The monthly Cold Storage report tonight showed 460.2m lbs of beef stocks in August. That was up 20 million from July, but down 2.1% yr/yr. Wholesale boxed beef prices were mixed in the PM report, tightening the spread to $9.14 cwt. Choice boxes fell back 78 cents, and Select boxes were 48 cents stronger. USDA estimated FI cattle slaughter for Tuesday at 121k head. WTD slaughter is at 241,000 head, outpacing the same week last year by 9,000.

--- provided by Brugler Marketing & Management