Live cattle futures fell the $7.25 limit on Friday, with October the lone contract not locked the limit, but still $5.97 lower. October was $233.75 lower last week. Cash trade settled in at $238-240 last week, with the later action on the lower side of that. The Friday morning Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed sales on 433 of the 1,646 head offered with at $238-239. Feeder cattle futures were down the $9.25 limit nearly across the board, with October down $9.05. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was back down $3.54 at $367.08 on October 23. Both live cattle ($10.75) and feeder cattle ($13.75) will have expanded limits on Monday.
Other than open interest data, we don’t have a good handle on the current managed money positions with Commitment of Traders data suspended amid the government shutdown. The last couple weeks have likely included a bit of long liquidation in both live and feeder cattle.
