CHICAGO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Chicago Mercantile Exchange cattle futures were mostly sharply lower on Thursday as traders sold off or shifted their positions ahead of a series of key government reports, analysts said.
Lean hog futures ended the day mixed - with nearby contracts firming, and deferred summer contracts easing - ahead of Friday's U.S. Department of Agriculture's quarterly data report on the size of the U.S. hog herd.
USDA is also slated to release separate monthly reports on the number of U.S. cattle on feed and on inventories of frozen meat in U.S. cold storage facilities.
A recent Reuters survey of analysts showed traders expect Friday's report to show the U.S. hog herd to be about 0.5% smaller on Dec. 1, compared to a year earlier. The USDA report is due at 2 p.m. CST (2000 GMT) on Friday.
But traders are uneasy ahead of the report, as large U.S. hog supplies have loomed over the market for months, said Dan Norcini, an independent livestock trader.
"There are a lot of guys that have been caught on the wrong side of a trade position after these quarterly reports," Norcini said.
On Thursday, USDA showed strong weekly pork export sales 2023-2024, for the period ended Dec. 14, led by sales to Mexico in 2023 and China for 2024. Beef export sales for the week were on the lower side, with South Korea and Japan coming in as top buyers.
CME's most-active live cattle February contract settled down 1.625 cents, at 168.675 cents per pound. The December contract closed the day up, narrowing the spread with the cash market.
CME's most-active March feeder cattle fell 2.375 cents to settle at 223.375 cents per pound.
In the pork market, most-active CME February lean hogs closed 0.425 cent higher, at 70.650 cents per pound. (Reporting by P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
