Live cattle vacillated during the morning. The lack of buyers and cash cattle price jitters allowed October and December to drift lower where speculative buyers awaited at key moving average support levels.

Beef futures inched upward amid back-and-forth spreading between October and December. And, CBOT corn's dramatic slide opened the door for rear-month cattle futures buyers.

At one point, cattle contracts abruptly surged to morning highs that triggered floor speculation of a possible cash deal that at the time could not be confirmed. Spot-October reached a high of 97.80-cents despite weak midday boxed beef quotes.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's midday boxed beef wire on Friday showed choice and select cuts down $0.76 and $0.41 per hundredweight, respectively.

There was word later that a few cattle in Texas and Kansas brought up to $96.50 per hundredweight on a live basis. That, a broker said, made guys feel more comfortable about pricing spot-October cattle at around $97 which caused October to pullback to steady money by the close.

Source: FXSTREET