31 December 2024
2 minute learn
Chicago Mercantile Alternate (CME) lean hog futures fell to two-month lows on Monday, hit by profit-taking and rising uncertainty over home and export demand within the coming months, Reuters reported, citing market analysts.
CME February lean hogs settled down 2.525 cents at 81.625 cents per pound, having reached lows of 80.900 cents per pound earlier within the session, their lowest level since Oct. 21.
Fears about future pork demand from China, the world’s main pork importer, weighed on markets Monday, stated Karl Setzer, associate at Consus Ag Consulting.
China’s financial system, the second largest on the earth, has struggled this 12 months with a property disaster and tepid home demand. Potential hikes in US tariffs on China’s items when US President-elect Donald Trump takes workplace in January are additionally seen as headwinds to progress.
Furthermore, stated Setzer, with the vacation season winding down within the US, merchants are “beginning to query how a lot client demand there will probably be when the vacation payments begin rolling in.”
In the meantime, CME cattle futures weakened on those self same post-holiday demand considerations, as merchants squared positions forward of the 12 months’s finish, Setzer stated.
February stay cattle settled down 0.350 cent at 190.300 cents per pound.
January feeder cattle futures completed down 0.150 cent at 262.425 cents per pound.
The US Division of Agriculture (USDA) reported alternative cuts of boxed beef on Monday afternoon rose $2.99 to $325.37 per hundredweight (cwt). Choose cuts rose $3.63 to $294.76 per cwt.
Pork carcasses misplaced $0.75 to $94.32 per cwt on Monday afternoon, in response to the USDA.
Revenue margins for beef packers remained within the pink with packers shedding about $32.55 per head of cattle, in response to livestock advertising advisory service HedgersEdge.com. The losses had shrunk considerably from Friday’s $46.20 per head and the $75.95 per head packers misplaced per week in the past.
