Live cattle rounded out a weaker Thursday session with contracts down $5 to $6.20. Preliminary open interest data showed some long liquidation, down 2,175 contracts on Thursday. The Thursday Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed no sales on the 1,602 head offered, with bids of $235-236. Cash movement has been quiet this week. Feeder cattle futures were down $6 to $7.50 in the front months on the Thursday session. OI fell 2,061 contracts. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was back up 59 cents to $375.16 on February 4.
Late on Wednesday, workers at the Greeley, CO JBS plant (~5,000 hd/day) voted to authorize a strike, though they did not give specifics on a timeline of when said strike would begin.
