Cattle futures surge on technical rebound and supply strain - CME
Hog prices climb as traders see value after recent declines
11 November 2025
1 minute read
By: Feeder cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) settled up their daily limit on Monday and benchmark live cattle futures ended nearly limit-up in what analysts said was a largely technical bounce after a steep sell-off last week, reported Reuters.
Additional support stemmed from broad strength in Wall Street equity markets and commodities, including grains and crude oil, as signs of progress in efforts to end a record-long US government shutdown bolstered risk appetite.
CME December live cattle futures settled up 7.200 cents at 228.550 cents per pound, while several deferred contracts, including for April and June cattle, rose the daily limit of 7.250 cents.
CME January feeder cattle ended up its limit of 9.250 cents, closing at 328.825 cents per pound.
Daily limits will widen to 13.750 cents for feeder cattle futures and 10.750 cents for live cattle in Tuesday's trading session, the exchange said.
Cattle markets were seen as due for a rebound after sharp declines in CME futures last week pushed December live cattle futures well below cash cattle prices.
"Today's futures action is a correction of over-sold short-term indicators," Cassie Fish, an analyst and industry expert, said on The Beef, a blog. Monday's bounce is "just the market mathematically catching its breath," Fish said.
Heightened volatility has been a theme in the cattle markets since mid-October as US President Donald Trump's administration took steps to cool historically high beef prices.
Last week, Trump accused meatpacking companies of driving up beef prices and ordered a Justice Department investigation, after a White House official said last month the US could quadruple low-tariff beef imports from Argentina.
The US cattle herd has shrunk to its smallest in decades after a lengthy drought, while an outbreak of screwworm, a parasite, in Mexico prompted US officials to mostly halt imports of Mexican feeder cattle earlier this year, further tightening supplies.
In the hog market, futures closed sharply higher on Monday on spillover strength from cattle and ideas that lean hog futures were too cheap relative to cash hog prices.
The nearby CME December lean hog contract settled up 3.375 cents at 82.775 cents per pound and February lean hogs LHG26 rose 3.475 cents to end at 82.825 cents.
The CME's Lean Hog Index, a two-day weighted average of cash prices, was last down 0.55 cent at 90.05 cents per pound.
