CME cattle futures dip on stronger dollar, slow cash trade
CHICAGO, Aug 15 (Reuters) -Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) live and feeder cattle futures eased on Thursday, as generally quiet cash market and a strengthening U.S. dollar left cattle futures in a range-bound trade, traders said.
Meanwhile, CME lean hog futures broke past technical resistance at 75.700 cents per pound, after traders rolled their positions out of the August live hog contract following the contract's Wednesday expiration date, market analysts said.
While fund short covering and a strong cash market supported hog futures on the day, a lack of fresh market news quelled trader interest in sending prices soaring, analysts said.
"The cash trade is above the board price but unless we get something new, it's not the start of a huge, wild rally," Matthew Wiegand, broker at FuturesOne, said.
CME October lean hog futures LHV24 ended up 0.575 cents at 76.5 cents per pound.
The U.S. dollar rose after U.S. economic data eased fears of a recession risk and dampened expectations for aggressive interest rate cuts. A stronger dollar typically makes U.S. exports less competitive.
CME most-active October live cattle LCV24 closed down 1.375 cents at 180.75 cents per pound. Most-active October feeder cattle FCV24 finished 1.2 cents lower at 240.9 cents per pound.
"Cattle is chopping around in range," Wiegand said. "We got to resistance levels but didn't have momentum to go through."
Afternoon boxed beef cutout values increased by $2.06 to $316.94 per hundredweight (cwt) for choice cuts, while select was up $1.53 at $302.03 per cwt, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
The upcoming Labor Day holiday, traditionally a major grilling holiday, may be helping to boost demand for beef and could spur some buying from packers, market analysts said.
Beef packer margins on Thursday continued to remain in the red, while pork packers are in the black, according to Denver-based livestock marketing advisory service HedgersEdge.com LLC..
Reporting by Heather Schlitz; Editing by Mohammed Safi Shamsi
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