Chicago | Reuters — Live cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange dropped on Thursday to fresh multi-month lows on technical selling and weak beef prices at a time when feedlot supplies of market-ready cattle are rising, analysts said.
Benchmark CME February live cattle LCG24 settled down 1.025 cents at 162.525 cents per pound after dipping to 162.400, the contract’s lowest since October 2022. Front-month December cattle LCZ3 ended down 1.100 cents at 162.350 cents after touching 162.200, the lowest on a continuous chart of the nearby contract LCc1 since mid-May.
CME January feeder cattle FCF24 ended modestly higher, rising 0.125 cent to end at 210.275 cents per pound, but deferred feeder cattle futures 0#FC: declined.
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Live cattle futures LCc1 have sold off sharply in recent months since reaching historic highs in mid-September. Managed commodity funds have slashed their net long position in the market amid worries about consumer demand for beef.
Meanwhile, even though the U.S. cattle herd has shrunk to its smallest size in decades, placements of cattle into feedlots for the last two months have been above year-ago levels, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The U.S. slaughter pace has been slower than a year ago, indicating a buildup at feedlots of cattle ready for slaughter.
“Fundamentally, there is still this issue about large market-ready cattle supplies. It is going to take a while to work through those as we go into early 2024,” said Doug Houghton, an analyst for Brock Associates.
The USDA priced choice cuts of beef at $289.84 per hundredweight (cwt) on Thursday afternoon, down $0.72 from Tuesday and the lowest since early April. Select cuts fell $1.07 to $258.83 per cwt.
Hog futures also declined, pressured by weak cash prices for ample supplies of hogs. CME February lean hog futures LHG24 settled down 1.525 cents at 67.775 cents per pound.
The CME’s Lean Hog Index .IHX, a two-day weighted average of cash prices, fell to 69.43 cents per pound, the lowest reading since February 2021.
The USDA priced pork carcasses on Thursday afternoon at $83.37 per cwt, up 17 cents from Wednesday.
