Live cattle futures are showing $2.17 to $2.70 gains on Friday. Cash trade got kicked off on Thursday, with a few sales at $228 across the country and $356-358. The Friday Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed no sales on the 1,708 head listed and bids of $227-228. Feeder cattle futures are up $5.10 to $6.10 so far on Friday. The CME feeder cattle index from December 17 was up 26 cents from the day prior at $350.05.
The December Cattle on Feed report will be released this afternoon, with traders looking for November placements to be down 8% from last year and marketings with a 11.3% drop. December 1 on feed is expected to be 1.6% below last year.
