Chicago | Reuters—Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) live cattle futures ended higher on Friday, buoyed by rising wholesale beef prices and firm cash cattle markets, traders said.
February live cattle LCG25 settled up 0.550 cent at 190.650 cents per pound after reaching 190.875 cents, the contract’s highest since Dec. 16.
CME January feeder cattle futures FCF25 finished up 2.075 cents at 261.375 cents per pound and March feeders FCH25 ended up 1.050 cents at 260.550 cents a pound.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture priced choice cuts of boxed beef on Friday afternoon at $322.38 per hundredweight (cwt), up $1.99 from Thursday and the highest level since late October. Select cuts rose to $291.13 per cwt, up $2.36 from Thursday.
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Meanwhile, slaughter-ready cattle traded in the southern Plains cash market on Friday at $192 to $193 per cwt, up $1 to $2 from last week’s cash trades, the USDA said.
Profit margins for beef packers remained in the red with packers losing about $46 per head of cattle, according to livestock marketing advisory service HedgersEdge.com LLC.
The poor margins and this week’s Christmas holiday appeared to curb the pace of cattle processing. The USDA reported Friday’s cattle slaughter at 123,000 head and projected a weekly kill of 434,000 head, compared to 500,521 head in the same week a year ago.
CME lean hog futures closed mixed on Friday, with the benchmark February contract LHG25 settling down 0.050 cent at 84.150 cents per pound while April hogs LHJ25 ended 0.275 cent higher at 89.525 cents.
The USDA reported export sales of U.S. 2024 pork for the week ended Dec. 19 at 7,100 metric tons and sales of 2025 pork at 39,400 tons. Mexico was the week’s top buyer.
