Live cattle futures saw weaker trade on Tuesday, with contracts down $1.05 to $1.90 on the session. Open interest suggested some longs exiting, down 726 contracts. Cash trade has been quiet so far this week, with a few $229 sales reported early in KS, steady to $1 higher than last week. The Tuesday Fed Cattle Exchange showed no sales on the 1,734 head offered, with bids at $225-227.50. Feeder cattle posted losses of $1.30 to $1.90 at the close. CME’s Feeder Cattle Index was up another $1.17 to $353.08 on December 22. The CME will close early today, 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.
