Live cattle futures are trading with contracts steady to 27 cents higher on Friday. Cash trade has yet to be reported this week. The Friday morning Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed no sales on the 1,884 head offered, with a few bids of $225-226. Feeder cattle futures are up $1.50 to $2.50 at midday. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was up 69 cents on October 21 to $343.57.
The monthly NASS Cattle on Feed report will be released on Friday, with traders surveyed by Reuters looking for September placements to be down 7.4% from a year ago and marketings down 7%. October 1 on feed is expected to be up 0.3% from last year.