Cattle futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange continued to rise Tuesday. Most active February live cattle futures ended up 0.375 cents per pound at 195.575 cents a pound. Values hit fresh highs in many months, although ideas the market was looking overbought tempered the advances.
The March feeder cattle futures rose 2.375 cents per pound to end at 267.925 cent per pound.
Census data converted to a carcass basis showed November U.S. beef exports at 253.1 million lbs (114.8 million kg) a five per cent increase over last month and 10.4 per cent larger than last year, Barchart reported.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported wholesale boxed beef prices were higher Tuesday morning, with choice boxes up $2.56 from Monday at $329.66 per hundredweight and select boxes up 74 cents at $304.07.
Lean hogs edged down with the February contract falling 0.475 cents to 79.175 cents per pound. Analysts pointed to lower cutout prices as one factor weighing on the futures.
U.S. pork exports in November hit a monthly record of 643.5 million lbs (291.9 million kg) when converted to a carcass basis, according to Census data. That was up by 10.4 per cent from October and 5.9 per cent on the year
