DTN reports:

Triple-digit gains were seen across livestock trade for the week, despite limited cattle losses Friday. Hog futures surged higher on China news.

 

LIVE CATTLE:

Futures closed $0.32 higher to $0.65 lower. All active traded live cattle contracts eroded late Friday due to limited end-of-week volume and traders moving away from establishing market direction and instead focusing on position-taking. December live cattle rallied $5.78 per cwt during the Wednesday and Thursday trading sessions, creating an opportunity for traders to adjust positions at the end of the week. At this point, the moderate price pressure is not expected to change the firming market structure, but traders remain cautious given pressure in cash trade and recent softness in beef values. Beef cutouts: steady to higher, unchanged (select, $198.60) and up $0.91 (choice, $220.88) with moderate demand and offerings, 127 loads (56 loads of choice cuts, 30 loads of select cuts, 17 loads of trimmings, 23 loads of coarse grinds).

 

MONDAY’S CASH CATTLE CALL:

Steady. Following what light-to-moderate trade through the week, packers and feeders are expected to regroup early next week. However, early week business is expected to be limited to showlist distribution and inventory taking.

 

FEEDER CATTLE:

Futures closed $0.35 lower to $0.32 higher. Early gains Friday morning led to limited buyer interest with traders seeing little change in the direction of the complex following technical market signals midweek. The triple-digit rally in all nearby cattle futures over the previous two days created a great opportunity for end-of-the-week position-taking in Friday’s limited-volume trade. Traders continue to focus on the recent support through the entire cattle complex, but remain extremely cautious given still-large numbers of market-ready live cattle to move through the system. This is causing some concern that recent gains may not hold over the next few weeks. CME cash feeder index for 9/12 is $136.09, down $0.56.