CME live cattle futures hit one-week highs on firm cash markets
By Julie Ingwersen
CHICAGO, July 17 (Reuters) -Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) live cattle futures hit their highest levels in more than a week on Wednesday, supported by firm cash cattle markets, traders said.
CME August live cattle futures LCQ24 settled up 1.600 cents at 184.275 cents per pound. Earlier in the session, the contract touched 184.575 cents, its highest since July 9.
Most-active October LCV24 ended 1.050 cents higher at 185.575 cents a pound.
Market-ready cattle traded lightly in Texas and Kansas cash markets at $188 per hundredweight (cwt), traders said, roughly steady with last week's trades and higher than the equivalent front-month futures price of about $184 per cwt.
"The discounts in the futures (versus cash) are too much," said Don Roose, president of Iowa-based U.S. Commodities.
Still, softening wholesale beef prices kept a lid on the futures market. Prices for choice cuts of beef fell $1.10 on Wednesday afternoon to $318.16 per cwt, the lowest reading since June 12, while select cuts dropped $3.15 at $298.44 per cwt, the lowest since May 17, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
CME feeder cattle futures were flat on Wednesday, with the most-active August FCQ24 contract falling 0.075 cent to end at 258.550 cents per pound.
Ahead of Friday's monthly USDA Cattle on Feed report, analysts surveyed by Reuters on average expect the government to report an 8.3% drop in June cattle marketing year-on-year. June feedlot placements were seen down 2.8% from a year ago, while the average analyst estimate for the number of cattle in U.S. feedlots, as of July 1, was 11.327 million head, up 1.1% from a year ago.
CME hog futures firmed for the fourth time in the last five sessions as the front two contracts extended their rebound from life-of-contract lows set last week. August lean hog futures LHQ24 settled up 0.375 cent at 91.650 cents per pound and October hogs LHV24 rose 1.475 cents to finish at 73.675 cents.
The USDA priced the pork carcass cutout on Wednesday afternoon at $99.32 per cwt, down $1.55 from Tuesday.
Reporting by Julie Ingwersen; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips
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