Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange cattle and hog futures fell on Wednesday.
The cattle market faced pressure from weakness in the cash market that stemmed from the ample supplies reflected in the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Cattle on Feed report issued on Friday.
“It is the belief that maybe the cash cattle market is stalling out here,” said Don Roose of U.S. Commodities in West Des Moines, Iowa. “We have a little bit of a hangover from that.”
Hog futures suffered from profit taking after hitting their highest in nearly three months.
“The market is overbought,” Roose said.
CME benchmark October live cattle ended 1.775 cents lower at 107 cents/lb. (all figures US$). October feeder cattle were down 1.15 cents at 141.925 cents/lb.
CME October lean hogs fell 0.4 cent to close at 55.55 cents/lb.
USDA said daily hog slaughter fell by 2,000 to 482,000 head on Wednesday. Cattle slaughter was reported at 118,000, unchanged from a day earlier.
— Reporting for Reuters by Mark Weinraub in Chicago.
