Live cattle futures closed the Friday session with contracts down 40 cents to $1.02, as June was still up $7.77 on the week. Open interest on Friday suggested modest new selling interest, up 3,870 contracts. Cash trade got kicked off early again last week, starting at $250-252 across the country and working up to $256-257 on Wednesday. Feeder cattle futures posted losses of 40 cents to $1.35 on Friday, fading back from the early session strength, as August was up $10.40 last week. OI data from Friday showed new selling interest, up 2,377 contracts. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was up $1.56 to $374.03 on April 30.
Managed money increased their net long in live cattle futures and options by 1,796 contracts in the week ending on April 28, taking it to 136,591 contracts. In feeder cattle futures/options spec funds cut back 1,676 contracts from their net long to 17,089 contracts.
