Live cattle saw some month-end profit taking, with contracts 67 cents to $1.25 lower on Friday. June rolled off the board at $193.50. August was up $2.27 on the week and $6.975 on the month. Cash trade was slow to develop this week, with light trade of $198 in NE and $190 in TX. Friday morning’s Fed Cattle Exchange online auction from Central Stockyards showed sales of $198.25 in IA using the BidTheGrid™ method. Feeder cattle closed with $1.35 to $1.85 losses on as August was up 92 cents this week and $2.90 on the month. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was back down 44 cents on June 27 at $258.60.
CFTC data from Friday showed specs net long 55,860 contracts as of Tuesday, a 4,136 contract increase to the position on the week. In feeder cattle managed money cut their net longs by 502 contracts to just 2,507 contracts as of June 25, the smallest net long cine January.
