Chicago | Reuters—Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) lean hog futures fell to two-month lows on Monday, hit by profit-taking and growing uncertainty over domestic and export demand in the coming months, market analysts said.
CME February lean hogs LHG25 settled down 2.525 cents at 81.625 cents per pound, having reached lows of 80.900 cents per pound earlier in the session, their lowest point since Oct. 21.
Fears about future pork demand from China, the world’s leading pork importer, weighed on markets Monday, said Karl Setzer, partner at Consus Ag Consulting.
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China’s economy, the second largest in the world, has struggled this year with a property crisis and tepid domestic demand. Possible hikes in U.S. tariffs on China’s goods when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January are also seen as headwinds to growth.
Moreover, said Setzer, with the holiday season winding down in the U.S., traders are “starting to question how much consumer demand there will be when the holiday bills start rolling in.”
Meanwhile, CME cattle futures weakened on those same post-holiday demand concerns, as traders squared positions ahead of the year’s end, Setzer said.
February live cattle LCG25 settled down 0.350 cent at 190.300 cents per pound.
January feeder cattle futures FCF25 finished down 0.150 cent at 262.425 cents per pound.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported choice cuts of boxed beef on Monday afternoon rose $2.99 to $325.37 per hundredweight (cwt). Select cuts rose $3.63 to $294.76 per cwt.
Pork carcasses lost $0.75 to $94.32 per cwt on Monday afternoon, according to the USDA.
Profit margins for beef packers remained in the red with packers losing about $32.55 per head of cattle, according to livestock marketing advisory service HedgersEdge.com. The losses had shrunk somewhat from Friday’s $46.20 per head and the $75.95 per head packers lost a week ago.
