Cattle futures hit report highs on tight provide outlook
17 July 2025
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Chicago Mercantile Change (CME) stay cattle futures climbed to contract highs on Wednesday as some merchants predicted that money costs will proceed to rise after surging final week, reported Reuters.
Futures and money costs have set information this yr as meatpackers more and more should compete to purchase restricted provides of cattle from farmers to course of into beef.
Cattle inventories are at their lowest stage in a long time after farmers slashed their herds because of a drought that decreased pasture lands used for grazing lately.
Futures costs look too low in comparison with larger money costs, supporting features on the CME, merchants mentioned.
“The commerce does really feel we may have larger money cattle commerce,” mentioned Wealthy Nelson, chief strategist for brokerage Allendale.
Will increase would lengthen features from final week, when money costs jumped by about $4 to $8 per hundredweight (cwt).
At some sale barns in Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska, money cattle traded round $252 per cwt this week, Nelson mentioned.
CME August stay cattle futures LCQ25 completed up 1.5 cents at 223.900 cents per pound after setting a contract excessive of 224.400 cents. All different contract months additionally set highs.
In CME’s feeder cattle market, August futures FCQ25 closed 3.3 cents larger at 325.575 cents per pound. Deferred futures contracts set new highs.
Tight cattle provides encourage commodity funds to take lengthy positions in cattle markets, or bets that costs will rise, a dealer mentioned.
“There’s nothing scaring the longs out as of but,” he mentioned.
Wholesale boxed beef costs tumbled, with selection cuts dropping by $4.87 to $372.85 percwt, in response to USDA knowledge.
The company on Thursday is slated to challenge weekly U.S. export gross sales knowledge for beef and pork.
CME August lean hog futures LHQ25 ended up 0.5 cent at 104.425 cents per pound.
Hog weights averaged 282.7 kilos in Iowa, southern Minnesota and South Dakota within the week ending on July 12, the USDA mentioned. That was unchanged from per week earlier however down from 284.7 kilos a yr in the past.
The wholesale U.S. pork carcass cutout value rose $0.72 to $114.74 per cwt, as costs climbed for bellies and dropped for butts, the USDA mentioned.
