Chicago | Reuters—Chicago Mercantile Exchange feeder and live cattle futures turned higher on Thursday, as technical trading, a steady cash market and weakness in grain futures gave cattle contracts a boost, traders said.
Meanwhile, hog futures continued to turn lower on profit-taking two days after the most-active December contract reached its highest since June 3, and as traders squared positions ahead of a key government report.
CME December lean hog futures settled down 0.975 cent at 73.925 cents per pound and February hogs ended down 0.800 cent at 77.825 cents.
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CME most-active December live cattle settled up 0.500 cent at 184.825 cents per pound and the spot October contract ended up 1.050 cents at 184.100 cents.
But continued weakness in wholesale beef prices capped gains. The U.S. Department of Agriculture priced choice cuts of boxed beef on Thursday morning at US$296.64 per hundredweight (cwt), down $1.53 from Wednesday. Select cuts fell by 35 cents at $282.93 per cwt.
The USDA reported Thursday’s cattle slaughter at 124,000 head, up from 122,000 head a week earlier.
Feeder cattle futures ended higher with the November contract finishing up 0.925 cent at 244.975 cents per pound.
After the market closed Thursday, USDA said in its quarterly hogs and pigs report that the U.S. hog herd as of September 1 was 76.5 million head, up slightly from a year earlier and up almost 2 per cent from June 1.
The report showed the number of hogs kept for breeding was close to trade expectations, and the number of pigs per litter continued to grow.
Ahead of Thursday’s quarterly hog report, analysts surveyed by Reuters on average expected the government to report the U.S. hog herd as of Sept. 1 at 76.285 million head, up 0.2 per cent from a year earlier. The number of hogs kept for breeding was seen down 2.1 per cent year-on-year.
