CHICAGO, April 24 (Reuters) – Chicago Mercantile Alternate cattle futures ticked up on Thursday, supported by tight cattle provides forward of the U.S. Memorial Day vacation.
CME June dwell cattle futures settled down 0.100 cent at 208.000 cents per pound, although the close by April contract reached lifetime of contract highs and all different contracts rose.
August feeder cattle futures ended 0.525 cent larger at 292.700 cents per pound.
Packers had been trying to find cattle for slaughter operations at a time of ongoing brief cattle provides, stated Altin Kalo, head economist at Steiner Consulting Group.
He stated the packers had been prepared to pay excessive costs to meet orders forward of the U.S. Memorial Day vacation subsequent month, when grilling is historically in style.
However, Kalo stated the positive aspects had been capped by uncertainty about shopper demand for high-priced beef after Memorial Day.
“It is nonetheless a query mark,” Kalo stated.
Packers confronted estimated losses of $143.40 per head on Thursday, in contrast with losses of $94.95 per week in the past, in keeping with livestock advertising and marketing advisory service HedgersEdge.com.
Within the wholesale beef market, alternative cuts of boxed beef rose $1.73 to $333.70 per hundredweight (cwt) on Thursday afternoon and choose cuts rose $1.83 to $316.35 per cwt, in keeping with information from the U.S. Division of Agriculture.
CME June lean hog futures fell 0.225 cent at 99.925 cents per pound.
Futures had been pressured by contemporary pork costs, which have been decrease than anticipated, stated Kalo, probably resulting from a later Easter vacation.
In wholesale pork values, the USDA reported pork carcasses rose $1.78 to $95.86 per cwt on Thursday afternoon, whereas bellies fell $1.73 to $143.46 per cwt.
The lean hog index value for the 2 days ending April 22 was $86.75, in keeping with CME, and was $86.08 for the 2 days ending April 21.
(Reporting by Renee Hickman; Enhancing by Shailesh Kuber)
