USA: CME Feeder Cattle Index in 2024

With the end of the year upon us, I've been looking back through some of my charts and am baffled by just how tight a trading window the feeder cattle market moved within this past year. Everyone knows this past year the cattle market reached record-high prices -- record high prices for fed cattle, feeder cattle and even cull cows -- but through the excitement and market chatter, we may have missed just how powerful the market's stamina really was. Throughout this past year, except for a brief period in January, the CME Feeder Cattle Index traded in a tight window of $240 to $262. Strong, relentless markets aren't easily shaken and don't panic or change direction on a whim and given that the index only varied by a mere $22 throughout the last year, that's evidence of just how bold and prevailing the market truly was. It would be remiss of me to overlook some of the challenges that plagued the market this past year. This spring, the live cattle contracts dropped $11.85 amid the ...