Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange lean hog futures ended lower on profit-taking on Tuesday after the market set contract highs in deferred months, analysts said.
Cattle futures advanced at the CME.
The hog market pulled back after June, July and August futures reached life-of-contract highs. Prices have jumped this year on improving demand for U.S. pork, including export sales, analysts said.
“We got overbought,” said Matt Wiegand, commodity broker for FuturesOne. “We’re probably due for a pullback, a consolidative move.”
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Most-active April lean hogs LHJ24 settled 1.1 cents weaker at 85.175 cents per pound. June hogs LHM24 closed 0.525 cent lower at 101.600 cents per pound after earlier setting a high of 103 cents.
Hog slaughtering fell to 454,000 hogs from 491,000 hogs a week ago, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Analysts said a large slaughterhouse suffered a temporary disruption in processing. Slaughtering is up about 1.2% so far this year, though, according to the USDA.
The USDA said meatpackers also slaughtered an estimated 122,000 cattle on Tuesday, compared with 125,000 cattle a week ago.
CME live cattle futures have traded sideways amid uncertainty about whether packers will pay higher cash prices to buy cattle, Wiegand said. Feeder cattle futures, meanwhile, got a boost from falling corn prices that made feed costs look cheaper, he said.
Corn futures Cc1 are hovering near three-year lows at the Chicago Board of Trade amid ample global supplies.
“Corn is looking like it’s not going anywhere really exciting or fast,” Wiegand said.
CME April live cattle LCJ24 settled up 1.325 cents at 188 cents per pound. April feeder cattle FCJ24 rose 1.425 cents to end at 257.175 cents per pound.
The USDA reported the choice boxed beef cutout at $304.79 per cwt, which was down $1.51, and the select boxed beef cutout at $294.87 per cwt, down $0.30.
