Chicago | Reuters—Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) cattle futures turned higher on Tuesday on technical trading and market anticipation that packers increase buying on a shortened holiday week, analysts said.
Weakness in the Chicago Board of Trade’s corn market Cv1 also gave some technical support to cattle futures, as speedy planting progress and dry weather forecasts in the U.S. Corn Belt pressured prices early in the session, traders said.
Traders said they had already factored in news from last week’s cattle on feed report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which generally fell in line with market expectations.
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The USDA reported the U.S. had 11.6 million cattle on feed on May 1, down one per cent from a year earlier. April placements were also down, which had been expected given tight feeder cattle inventory and high domestic feeder values, said Karl Setzer, partner at Consus Ag.
Meanwhile, the cash market prices are expected to be steady to higher this week, with producers offering $190 per hundredweight (cwt) in the southern U.S. Plains, and more than $192 per cwt in the Corn Belt, analysts said.
“The question now that traders are asking is, is this increase in prices we’re seeing in cattle markets the last seasonal push,” said Don Roose, president of brokerage U.S. Commodities.
Lean hog futures turned lower on continued weakness in the cash market. But futures prices were supported by pork cutout prices turning mostly higher Tuesday morning, according to USDA data.
Most-active CME August live cattle LCQ24 closed 0.700 cent higher at 181.825 cents per pound, while June live cattle LCM24 settled up 0.85 cent at 184.550 cents per pound. August feeder cattle FCQ24 settled up 4.375 cents at 264.600 cents per pound.
Most-active CME July hog futures LHN24 ended down 0.700 cent at 96.525 cents per pound.
