9 February 2024

2 minute learn

Chicago Mercantile Change (CME) reside cattle and close by feeder cattle futures turned larger on Thursday, supported by weak point within the corn market and anticipation that the money market will proceed to agency, Reuters reported, citing merchants.

Some cattle traded for $179 per head in Iowa’s money cattle market on Thursday, up from final week’s costs, one dealer mentioned.

Lean hog futures turned sharply decrease early in session, because the market continued to react to Wednesday afternoon’s information of pork carcass cut-out values had been down from the day gone by, in accordance with the U.S. Division of Agriculture information.

However by later within the day, costs had bounced off these lows after USDA reported Thursday morning that pork cut-out values had firmed, merchants mentioned.

USDA reported Thursday morning that alternative boxed beef cutout was down 88 cents at $294.10 per hundredweight (cwt), whereas choose cuts gained 48 cents to $285.90 per cwt.

April reside cattle ended 1.775 cents larger at 186.575 cents per pound. March feeder cattle settled up 1.300 cents at 246.850 cents per pound.

CME benchmark April lean hog futures settled down 0.750 cent at 80.350 cents per pound.

Export gross sales additionally gave a lift to the livestock market on the day, significantly for the cattle markets, mentioned Dan Norcini, an unbiased livestock dealer.

Export gross sales of US pork within the week to Jan. 25 totalled 39,900 metric tons, primarily for China, USDA mentioned. US beef exports for a similar interval totalled 20,600 metric tons, primarily for South Korea and China, USDA mentioned.

“That may be a stable export quantity for the meat,” Norcini mentioned.

Karl Setzer, a companion at Consus Ag Consulting, mentioned in an analyst observe Thursday that US Census information reveals the US exported 252.3 million kilos of beef in December of 2023, a four-month excessive; and that US pork exports in December “had been the second largest on report”.