However, short covering pried front months from contract lows. Also, more shorts claiming profits and CBOT corn's strength hoisted deferred cattle months onto positive trading turf by day's end.

Beef futures spiked on the open driven by end-of-quarter short covering and front-months' oversold technical indicators. What's more, a few back-month cattle were buoyed by CBOT corn futures that surged following USDA's crop planting numbers.

However, live cattle buying quickly abated after CME hogs not only opened sharply lower, but several contracts soon dropped limit due to Friday's negative USDA quarterly hog figures.

Cattle traders were also pained by Friday's hog report that showed bigger-than-anticipated hog supplies in the coming months that could compete directly with beef demand.

Source: FXSTREET