Beef futures jumped at the start spurred by short covering, brisk wholesale beef movement and fund buying. Buy stops and February and April's oversold technical indicators provided added front-month lift.

USDA's midday boxed beef on Tuesday quoted choice cuts up $1.83 per hundredweight and select items added another $1.30.

Furthermore, talk of treacherous winter weather conditions, and this week's smaller show lists, stirred speculation for at least a steady fed cattle outcome this week.

Meanwhile, except for an occasional uptick, far-month live cattle loitered in modest bearish territory during most of the session due to CBOT corn's setback.

With nothing else fundamentally to cling to other than boxed beef's progress, traders will monitor storm warnings. Some forecasts call for nearly a foot of snow in sections of the heartland where some folks are still coping with remnants of last week's snowy onslaught.

Source: FXSTREET