Friday was a risk-free trading day, with sell-offs across all commodity markets, according to independent trader Dan Norcini.
Trump said in a social media post Thursday that new tariffs on imports from Mexico and CANADA, as well as additional duties on Chinese goods, would go into effect March 4, contradicting his comments Wednesday that they might be delayed until April.
Market participants are concerned about the possibility of retaliatory measures against US farm exports from affected countries, with analysts saying the tariffs are likely to fuel US inflation .
Investor fears that beef demand will falter as consumers face cash shortages have sent cattle futures soaring .
This week , federally inspected cattle slaughter was estimated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture at 566,000 HEAD. That's down 3,000 head from the previous week, but still down 28,236 head from the same week last year.
WEEKLY COST OF CUT OUT CAT.CHOICE
CATTLE SALES
Sale of cattle, heads
Average weight
Week 8
Week 9
Growth per week,%
Week 8
Week 9
Growth per week,%
Bulls (live weight)
11 840
808
-93.2%
1,480
1,528
3.2%
Heifers (live weight)
4 975
1 541
-69.0%
1 389
1 391
0.1%
Bulls (slaughter weight)
3 270
3 228
-1.3%
961
993
3.3%
Heifers (slaughter weight)
908
1 138
25.3%
874
889
1.7%
WEEKLY WEIGHTED AVERAGE BULL PRICE
BEEF PRODUCTION
Indicator
Week 9
Previous week
A year ago
Growth per week,%
Growth per year, %
Volume of cattle slaughter
566,000
569,000
594,000
-0.5%
-4.7%
Live weight
1,440
1,437
1 391
0.2%
3.5%
Slaughter weight
876
874
840
0.2%
4.3%
Beef Production (million pounds)
494.4
496.3
498.4
-0.4%
-0.8%
CME: Live Cattle Futures
Week 8
Week 9
Growth per week,%
February
197.83
197.73
-0.1%
April
193.95
192.65
-0.7%
June
190.33
188.78
-0.8%
CME: Feeder Cattle Futures
March
267.95
274.98
2.6%
April
267.55
273,00
2.0%
May
265.93
271.13
2.0%
You can learn more about the state of the cattle market in the usa ( cattle prices , cost of beef by category, production dynamics) in the weekly reviews of the MEAT market in RUSSIA and in the world from Meatinfo.ru. Weekly reviews are available as part of a subscription.