Sort and Cull

May I just say it again: Dabbling in the cattle complex isn't for the faint of heart! And if you watched the cattle market open and trade Monday, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Over the weekend, news broke from the CDC that a person who was traveling abroad and then to Maryland contracted New World screwworm (NWS), which is why the cattle complex traded in such a tumultuous manner initially Monday. Thankfully, by the day's end, traders were able to regather their thoughts and allowed the market to regain much of the position that was initially thrown away at the day's start; but an unsettled tone kept with the complex through the day's close.

But now looking ahead to the rest of the week, it wouldn't be surprising to see traders keeping the complex in a steady/somewhat lower trend through the remainder of the week given all that's developed lately. Just last week, the futures complex saw massive gains as October live cattle jumped $7.22 and September feeder cattle jumped $15.33 throughout the week. The fed cash cattle market had a powerful rally as well as new all-time highs were reached again for both the North and South. Southern live cattle averaged mostly $240, which is roughly $5.00 higher than the previous week, and Northern dressed cattle averaged mostly $385, which is $2.00 higher than the previous week. Also, the feeder cattle market saw the CME Feeder Cattle Index jump to $350.18, which is a new all-time high as well.

So, after securing wins left and right last week, and then hearing news over the weekend about a positive NWS case being detected here in the U.S., it wouldn't be surprising to see traders more cautious this week, as they could probably use an opportunity to rest and reset following the wild moves the market has recently seen.

ShayLe Stewart can be reached at shayle.stewart@dtn.com

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