"It was kind of slow in the cattle pit after the open," one broker said. "The market just chopped around in a quiet, sideways trade."

Prices opened higher on hedge lifting and speculative bullishness after an active cash trade on Wednesday afternoon at higher prices, traders and brokers said. Trade volumes were so light it was hard for floor traders to get a good "feel" of the market based on which firms were doing what in the pit, they said.

The strongest influence in the pit was Wednesday's cash trading and some buy stops in the February contract, they said.

Wintry weather that moved into the Plains Wednesday and Thursday provided some snow in parts of the Texas Panhandle and up into southwestern Kansas, but traders said most feedlot managers welcomed the moisture, saying it would help with the dusty conditions created by months of dry weather.

Some feedlot casualties could result, but most traders said they expected few problems that reach greater-than-normal proportions.

Source: FXSTREET