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Cattle futures retreat from highs on profit taking
6 January 2025
2 minute read
Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) feeder cattle futures dipped on profit-taking on Friday after reaching multi-month highs the previous day, although meat packers continued to struggle to find inventory, Reuters reported, citing analysts.
CME March feeder cattle settled down 2.025 cents at 264.175 cents per pound, having reached a life-of-contract high earlier in the session at 267.750 cents per pound.
February live cattle futures ended up 0.450 cent at 194.050 cents per pound, its highest since Oct. 16, 2023, although other contracts settled lower.
“We had a market that was fairly overbought” in cattle futures, said Altin Kalo, head economist at Steiner Consulting Group.
Futures had been lifted by higher prices packers have paid for cattle around the country as they struggled to secure inventory for slaughter operations.
Kalo said bitterly cold temperatures forecast across much of the US in the next few days were also a factor in the rally that brought feeder cattle to life-of-contract highs and live cattle to multi-month highs the previous day.
Still, meat packers spent another day in the red on Friday, losing an estimated $28.95 per head, compared with losses of $22.45 per head on Thursday and losses of $46.20 a week ago, according to livestock marketing advisory service HedgersEdge.com.
USDA reported choice cuts of boxed beef on Friday afternoon rose $1.76 to $325.24 per hundredweight (cwt). Select cuts rose $2.49 to $296.72 per cwt.
CME February lean hogs settled down 0.375 cent at 80.775 cents per pound.
The large net long position held by the funds continued to unravel, Kalo said, with prices for some pork cuts drifting lower as the week closed. Hams fell $3.33 to $80.31 per cwt on Friday afternoon as seasonal demand dropped, he said.
