Tomorrow, USDA will release two important reports: the monthly Cattle on Feed Report and the quarterly Hogs and Pigs Inventory. Analysts’ pre-report estimates peg the total number of cattle on feed as of 1 September at 98 percent of a year ago. The range of estimates was between 97.2 and 98.7 percent. The implied inventory of cattle on feed would be 11.2 million head. WPI’s own estimate is lighter at 11.06 million head, or 97 percent of last year.
The 1 September inventory in 2020 was the largest on record given the COVID backlog of slaughter capacity earlier in the year. Seasonally, September is the low point for cattle on feed inventories; the number of cattle in feed yards starts to increase in Q4, with...
What You Need to Know Today: The hot, dry weather forecast continues to drive strength in grain futures with corn and soybeans hitting another day of strong gains. Monday’s Crop Progress and Conditions data were in line with market expectations and showed relatively few concerns for the...
Yesterday we wrote about the Q1 GDP numbers and the June employment reports in an article entitled Real GDP for Q1 Relying on AI Buildout, Held Back by Consumer Spending. That article mentioned that consumer spending had become a drag on GDP. Nonetheless, real GDP in Q1 was revised upward to 2...