Live cattle futures closed the Christmas Eve session with contracts down $1.30 to $1.50, as December settled with a 12 cent loss. Cash trade picked up ahead of the holiday, with a few $229-230 sales reported this week, steady to $2 higher than last week. The Wednesday Fed Cattle Exchange showed sales on 827 of the 1,734 head offered, at $229-230, with a lot of 40 head sold at $355 dressed. Feeder cattle futures were up a dime in nearby January contracts, with others steady to 25 cents lower. CME’s Feeder Cattle Index was up another $1.32 to $354.40 on December 23. The CME will open back up on Friday per normal, with no trade on Thursday.
NASS Cold Storage data from Tuesday afternoon showed 425.5 million lbs of beef stocks at the end of November, which was down 3.42% from last year and the smallest November total since 2014.
