Cattle futures dip despite tight supply signals - CME
Hog prices rise as grilling season boosts demand
28 May 2025
2 minute read
By: Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) lean hog futures rose on Tuesday following the US Memorial Day holiday weekend and as the grilling season kicked into gear, Reuters reported, citing analysts.
CME most actively traded July lean hogs rose 0.600 cent to finish at 102.150 cents per pound.
Most active August feeder cattle lost 2.225 cents to end at 298.150 cents per pound, having hit its lowest point since May 1.
August live cattle fell 1.15 cents to 209.300 cents per pound.
"We're getting into seasonally tighter numbers," said Matthew Wiegand, a risk management consultant at FuturesOne.
He said that might become even more apparent as data comes in from the Memorial Day weekend, a traditional grilling holiday in the US that kicks off the country's grilling season.
"Early demand looked good," Wiegand said.
Cattle futures gained some strength earlier in the session on the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) cattle on feed report, released after the close of trading Friday, but the tight numbers it showed were not enough to sustain a rally, Wiegand added, and a bout of fund liquidation brought futures lower.
Beef packer margins were estimated at losses of $112.05 per head vs. losses of $157.60 per head a week ago, according to livestock marketing advisory service HedgersEdge.com.
Wholesale values for beef were mixed on Tuesday. Choice cuts of boxed beef were up $0.30 to $361.85 per hundredweight (cwt), while select cuts fell $0.49 to $350.83 per cwt, USDA data for Tuesday afternoon showed.
In wholesale pork values, the USDA reported carcass values were up $2.27 to $103.73 per cwt on Tuesday afternoon, while bellies were up $7.48 to $152.19 per cwt.
