Hog futures edge higher - CME
Cattle futures end with steep weekly losses
10 February 2025
2 minute read
By: Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) live cattle and feeder cattle futures finished with sharp weekly losses on Friday under pressure from falling cash prices and selling by commodity funds, Reuters reported, citing analysts.
Live cattle fell 2.7% for the week and feeder cattle tumbled 3.9%.
Cash prices and futures recently set record highs as US cattle supplies are tight after farmers slashed their herds due to drought. But cash prices this week dropped by $2 to $3 per hundredweight from last week, traders said.
Funds sold futures after they recently made large bets that prices would rise, said Austin Schroeder, commodity analyst at Brugler Marketing & Management.
"They sold the market off pretty hard," Schroeder said. "You're sitting on technical support."
Most-active CME April live cattle futures ended flat at 196.775 cents per pound on Friday, while March feeder cattle slipped 0.4 cent to 264.9 cents per pound. Both set four-week lows during the previous session.
Beef processors, such as Tyson Foods and Cargill, were losing about $200 for each head of cattle they slaughtered amid high livestock prices and low supplies, HedgersEdge.com estimated.
Boxed beef prices fell, and meatpackers cut back on the number of cattle they slaughtered to an estimated 100,000 head from 114,000 cattle a week ago, according to US Department of Agriculture data.
"Margins are tightening," Schroeder said. "Packers can't necessarily pay up for cattle."
Concerns have eased among traders about the risk for tariff disputes with Canada and Mexico to disrupt shipments of cattle into the United States. US President Donald Trump on Monday postponed plans for tariffs on Mexico and Canada for a month.
The USDA over the weekend also said it would resume cattle imports from Mexico that the agency had blocked since late November over a pest found south of the border.
In CME's hog market, April futures edged 0.4 cent higher to 92.150 cents per pound and touched the highest price since Jan. 30.
