Live cattle futures were down 12 to 72 cents at Thursday’s close, with some deferreds higher. Cash trade has seen a few cattle exchange hands at $232 so far this week on thin volume. The Wednesday Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed no sales on the 1,228 head, with bids of $230-230.50. Feeder cattle futures were down 50 cents in nearby January, with most other contracts facing weakness. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was down $2.18 to $365.23 on January 21.
The monthly Cattle on Feed report will be out on Friday afternoon, with traders looking for December placements down 6.5% and marketing up 1.5% yr/yr. January 1 on feed inventory is seen down 3.2%.
