Live cattle futures closed mostly higher on Friday. Dec stayed 15 cents in the red at the closing bell, but the other front months were 2 to 25 cents in the black. Feeder cattle futures closed 27 to 95 cents lower. The 11/19 CME Feeder Cattle Index was $136.75, down by 76 cents. USDA confirmed cash sales for the week were mostly at $110. Northern dressed deals were mostly near $172. Wholesale boxed beef prices were higher. Choice was $238.35 per hundred and up by 65 cents. Select was $1.09 higher to $214.98 cwt. USDA reported 11.973m head of cattle were on feed on November 1. That was the largest November inventory on record. October marketings were 1.873 million head and slightly below last year. Just 2.192m head were placed in October, which marked the third lowest on record for the month. USDA estimated the week’s FI cattle slaughter at 665k head through Saturday. That is down 3,000 from last year, but up from 653k last week.
--- provided by Brugler Marketing & Management
