MEATBOARD PM: Boxed Beef Choice: $262.17 (+0.47); Pork Carcass: $107.11 (+3.65); Chicken Breast: $357.87 (-0.46)

Boxed Beef PM: Choice: $262.17 (+0.47) Select: $243.02 (-3.04); Ch/Se Spread: 19.15; Total Loads: 90 compared to 86 on Thursday (Spread widens out to $19)

CATTLE ON FEED: U.S. inventory reported at 11.97 million head on May 1st, up 2% from last year. This is the highest May 1 inventory on record. The U.S. inventory has been larger than 11 million head for 54 out of the last 55 months

CME LIVESTOCK: Live Cattle: $131.55 (-0.475); Feeder Cattle: $163.925 (-1.275) Hogs: $109.00 (+2.025); Milk: $24.65 (-0.20) (Feeders down more than $12 since May 3rd)

CME GRAINS: Corn: $7.7875 (-4.50); Soybeans: $17.0525 (+14.75); Wheat: $11.6875 (-31.75); Cotton: $142.27 (-5.43) (Wheat down more than a dollar in 3 days)

STOCK UPDATE: Dow 30: 31,261.90 (+8.77); Nasdaq: 11,354.62 (-33.88); S&P 500: 3,901.36 (+0.57) (Stocks Recover Late On Bullard Comments)

ENERGY PRICES: Crude Oil: $110.28 (+0.39); Heating Oil: $3.7391 (-0.0529); Natural Gas: $8.083 (-0.225) (Nat-gas down on outlook for cooler U.S. temperatures)

BEEF PRODUCTION: Weekly production reported at 561.8 million pounds, up 3.2% from last week, up 1.7% from last year (EWMP)

Weekly cattle slaughter reported at 680K head, compared to 657K last week and 672K last year. YTD slaughter at 12.9 million head, up 0.7% from last year (EWMP)

CATTLE WEIGHTS: Live weights reported this week at 1,371 lbs., down 3 lbs. from last week, up 11 lbs. from last year (EWMP)

View More