Live Cattle and Feeder Cattle futures lower as boxed beef weakens.

Live Cattle futures broke out of a two-week sideways channel, dropping sharply on a steep decline in wholesale boxed beef cutouts where Choice fell $5.29. Feeder Cattle futures fell for a third consecutive session, hitting technical resistance and shedding $11.83 from the previous week's highs despite tight physical supplies. Lean Hog futures finished mixed as soft packer demand ahead of the holiday offset firmer cutout values, while the latest CFTC data revealed that managed money funds expanded their net short position by 5,000 contracts to a total net short of 33,000 contracts.