
Live cattle futures were down 12 to 72 cents at Thursday’s close, with some deferreds higher. Open interest rose 626 contracts on Thursday. Cash trade has seen a few cattle exchange hands at $232 so far this week on thin volume. The Wednesday Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed no sales on the 1,228 head, with bids of $230-230.50. Feeder cattle futures were down 50 cents in nearby January, with most other contracts facing weakness. Open interest was up 542 contracts on Thursday. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was down $2.18 to $365.23 on January 21.
The monthly Cattle on Feed report will be out this afternoon, with traders looking for December placements down 6.5% and marketing up 1.5% yr/yr. January 1 on feed inventory is seen down 3.2%.