Chicago | Reuters – CME Group live cattle and hog futures fell to two-week lows on Monday, pressured by bearish government supply reports released late on Friday.
“There’s no shortage of market supplies or beef production until the fourth quarter at the earliest,” brokerage StoneX wrote in a note to clients.
The U.S. Agriculture Department said on Friday the number of U.S. cattle on feed as of April 1 was at 12.1 million head, up 2 percent from a year earlier, a bigger increase than analysts were expecting.
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The government said cattle placements in feedlots during March were roughly steady with a year ago, while analysts on average expected a 7.8 percent decline.
CME June live cattle futures LCM2 fell 3 cents to settle at 135.425 cents per pound, after hitting a low of 134.45. The contract dropped below its 20-day, 30-day, 40-day and 200-day moving averages during the session.
CME feeder cattle also were weaker, with May FCK2 down 2.575 cents at 161.3 cents per pound and most-active August feeders FCQ2 down 2.4 cents at 174.5 cents a pound.
Benchmark June lean hogs LHM2 settled down 4.75 cents at their session low of 114.025 cents per pound.
In its monthly Cold Storage report released on Friday, the USDA said U.S. frozen pork supplies were up 8 percent from last year. Frozen beef supplies stood at 536.887 million pounds at the end of last month, an all-time high for March.
