Live cattle futures fell back ahead of the Friday report, as contracts were steady to 77 cents in the red at the close. Cash trade has yet to be reported this week. The Thursday Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed no sales on the 1,884 head offered, with a few bids of $224. Feeder cattle futures were down $1.50 to $2.05 on the day, as traders squared up ahead of the Friday Cattle on Feed report. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was back down $1.29 on October 19 to $342.16.
The monthly NASS Cattle on Feed report will be released on Friday, with traders surveyed by Reuters looking for September placements to be down 7.4% from a year ago and marketings down 7%. October 1 on feed is expected to be up 0.3% from last year.