Live cattle futures faced weakness on Friday, with contracts down 45 cents to $1.30, as October fell $6.20 on the week. Cash trade picked up later on Friday with $222 sales surfacing across the country. The Friday morning Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed dressed sales of $342 on 40 head, with another set of $223 sales on 174 head. Feeder cattle futures slipped back $1.55 to $1.97 to close Friday, with September down $8.12 this week. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was down another 67 cents on August 27 to $332.80.
Commitment of Traders data showed managed money trimming another 4,073 contracts from their net long in live cattle futures and options to 57,441 contracts as of Tuesday. In feeder cattle futures and options specs cut back 1,784 contracts from their net long to just 5,714 contracts in the week of August 25.
