CHICAGO, July 14 (Reuters) - Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures turned higher on Friday amid a flurry of technical trading, even as beef prices continued to see a seasonal downturn, traders said.

Cash cattle market trades this week continued to be down $2 to $3 per hundredweight (cwt), traders said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday morning reported prices of choice cuts at $306.14 per cwt, down 77 cents from Thursday. Select cuts were priced at $277.80 per cwt, down $2.38 from Thursday.

"Beef packer margins are getting to a break-even point, too," said Don Roose, president of Iowa-based U.S. Commodities.

High cash cattle prices and the slide in wholesale beef prices have cut meat packers' profit margins to $2.80 per head of cattle on Friday, from $74.80 a week ago, according to livestock marketing advisory service HedgersEdge.com LLC.

Meanwhile, CME lean hog futures were mixed, with nearby contracts ticking lower and deferred months ending higher on recent rising wholesale pork prices and cash hog values, traders said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) quoted the wholesale pork carcass cutout at $115.74 per hundredweight (cwt) on Friday morning, up $4.84 from a day earlier, while pork bellies rose $7.38 to $182.30 per cwt.

"For lean hog futures, I think the run-up has stalled out fundamentally for the summer months," Roose said.

CME August lean hogs settled down 0.300 cent at 96.200 cents per pound, and the October contract ended up 0.250 cent at 83.600 cents.

CME August live cattle futures settled 3.275 cents higher at 180.175 cents per pound, while October cattle ended down 2.525 cents at 182.625 cents.

August feeder cattle futures settled up 1.65 cents at 246.650 cents per pound. (Reporting by P.J. Huffstutter; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)