Live cattle futures are showing gains of $3.10 to $3.75 so far at Friday’s midday. Cash trade has popped up on Friday at $232 in the north, with southern bids still $228-229. Feeder cattle futures are up another $5.37 to $7.10 to start the year. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was up 21 cents to $348.65 on December 31.
Commitment of Traders data indicated spec traders in live cattle at a net long position of 94,868 contracts as of 12/23, an addition of 3,565 contracts on the week. Managed money was net long 14,629 contracts in feeder cattle.
