Live cattle futures are slipping back 42 to 87 cents across the front months at midday. 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 are back down $1.52 to $2.37 at midday, as traders square 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.