
Live cattle futures saw weakness of $1.10 to $1.50 across most contracts on Thursday. Cash trade has yet to get kicked off this week, with $232 bids. The Thursday Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed bids of $232 to $233.50 but no sales on the 1,510 head. Feeder cattle futures were down 72 cents to $1.10, as expiring January was up $1.07. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was back up $2.70 to $366.69 on January 28.
The annual Cattle Inventory report from USDA will be released on Friday, with traders looking for all cattle an calves down 0.3% from last year. Beef cows are seen up 0.4%, with replacement heifers up 1.7% yr/yr.