By Kirk Maltais
The cattle-on-feed report from the Agriculture Department showed inventories of cattle on feedlots fell more than what was expected by analysts.
In its monthly report published Friday, the USDA said that total inventories of cattle on feedlots were 11.58 million head through April 1. That is off a half point from the same month last year. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had forecast on-feed inventories to fall 0.2 percentage points.
New placements also fell more than anticipated by surveyed analysts at 1.71 million head, down 7.3 points from this time last year. Analysts had forecast that number to slide by only 6.5 percentage points.
Marketing of cattle on feedlots was higher than analysts forecast, at 1.63 million head. That is 5.5 points down from the prior year, which is a smaller decrease than forecast by analysts, who expected a 6.3 point slide.
Most-active live cattle futures closed the day down 0.2% to $2.4715 a pound. Lean hog futures settled down 0.7% to $1.00975 a pound.
Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-17-26 1541ET
