Live cattle futures were $1.50 to $2.40 lower on Friday, with June down $1.05 this week. Cash trade picked up on Friday to $255-258 across the country. Feeder cattle futures were down $4.60 to $5.02 in most contracts on Friday with August slipping $1.42 this week. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was back up $3.77 on May 28 to $373.40.
Commitment of Traders data from CFTC on Friday showed live cattle spec traders at a net long of 120,569 contracts of futures and options as of Tuesday, trimming 9,544 contracts over the course of the week. Managed money in feeder cattle were busy exiting longs, dropping the net long by 5,785 contracts to the smallest net long since the fall of 2024 at 10,595 contracts.
