CME cattle futures turn lower
Lean hogs tick higher
9 May 2024
2 minute read
By: Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) cattle futures turned lower on Wednesday, with signs of technical selling and as live cattle futures prices continued to run at a discount to the cash cattle market, Reuters reported, citing analysts.
Meanwhile, lean hog contracts ended higher, with actively traded CME June live cattle futures rising as technical buying and short-covering continued for a second straight session this week.
CME June lean hogs ended up 0.400 cent at 98.725 cents per pound.
While there were no cash cattle trades reported on Tuesday, packer inventories have been in a stronger position than they have in recent weeks, according to analysts at HedgersEdge.com, a risk management and market research firm.
"Packers just are not willing to pay up right now, because they're losing about $70 or more a head right now," said Don Roose, president of Iowa-based US. Commodities.
Meanwhile, producers in the southern Plains were offering cattle around the $186 per hundredweight (cwt) range and up to $188 per cwt in the central Corn Belt, traders said.
The US Department of Agriculture's choice beef cutout values turned lower on Wednesday morning, though select prices ticked higher, a sign that consumer demand for higher-priced cuts may be a bit softer than the market was expecting ahead of the US summer grilling season.
"The grilling season typically runs from Mother's Day - which is on Sunday - to Memorial Day, so we're running out of time for peak demand of higher-priced cuts," Roose said. "As we get closer to the fourth of July, the consumer focus turns to hot dogs and hamburgers - not steaks."
Actively traded CME June live cattle futures finished 1.150 cents lower at 176.475 cents per pound. August feeder cattle settled down 2.025 cents at 252.400 cents per pound.
