By Kirk Maltais
New placements of cattle on feedlots increased in February versus the same month a year year, according to Agriculture Department data, counter to forecasts from analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
In its monthly Cattle on Feed report, the USDA said Friday that placements through February totaled 1.61 million head. That's up 3.7 percentage points from last February. It's also counter to forecasts from analysts this week, who expected placements to fall 1 point from this time last year.
Total inventories and marketings of on-fed cattle also exceeded analyst forecasts for the month. Total inventories were 11.55 million head in February, down 0.2 percentage points from the same time last year. Analysts were expecting inventories to fall by 0.8 points.
Fed cattle marketed in February totaled 1.63 million head, which is off 6.8 points from the same time last year. Analysts did forecast a decline, but were expecting a larger one at 7.7 points.
Live cattle futures on the CME settled higher for the day, rising 0.3% to $2.3395 a pound. Lean hogs declined, retreating 0.8% to 91.35 cents a pound.
To see related data, search "USDA Monthly Cattle on Feed Data" in Dow Jones NewsPlus.
Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
03-20-26 1548ET
