
Live cattle saw Friday gains of $1.50 to $2.50, with February up $1.90 this week. The Friday Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed $242-243 sales on 761 of the 1,602 head offered. Cash trade picked up to $240-241 in the north and $242-245 in the south. Feeder cattle futures were up 90 cents to $3.35 in the front months on Friday, with March up $7.15 this week. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was back down 69 cents to $374.47 on February 5.
The weekly Commitment of Traders report showed a total of 8,846 contracts added to the managed money net long position in live cattle futures and options as of 2/3, taking the net long to 114,531 contracts. In Feeder cattle futures and options, specs were trimming 194 contracts from the spec net long to 16,435 contracts.