October 22, 2007

CME traders see USDA cattle data neutral to bearish

Traders gathered on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) called the US government's Friday (October 19) afternoon monthly cattle-on-feed results neutral to bearish for futures prices on Monday (October 22).

The US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) October 1 on-feed figure came in at 96.0 percent versus the average analyst estimate of 95.7 percent and a pre-survey range from 94.0 percent to 97.1 percent.

September placements were reported at 109.0 percent compared with the 104.9 percent average and forecast 97.5 percent to 112.3 percent range.

USDA put last month's marketings at 97 percent versus the 96.0 percent estimate and 94.0 percent to 100.0 percent range.

"You can only look at the placement number as bearish," a trader said. "But, futures dropped pretty good before the close, so a lot of the data may be already in the market which will leave people to focus on the cash trade."