Chicago live cattle futures settled around contract highs, Tuesday, while lean hogs fell.
Most active June live cattle closed at 210.200 cents a pound, up 0.600 cents. August live cattle settled at 205.675 cents per pound for a gain of 0.350 cents.
Most active August feeder cattle contracts settled at 296.900 cents a pound, up 1.950 cents. May feeder cattle closed at 294.025 cents for a gain of 2.225 cents a pound.
Choice boxed beef rose to $348.26 per cwt, up $5.49 from Monday. Select boxed beef fell by $1.30 per cwt to close at $323.82 per cwt according to the USDA’s afternoon report.
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Meanwhile, CME lean hog contracts turned lower for a second consecutive session on a flurry of spread trading, where market participants and some funds opted to sell off hogs in favor of cattle, said Don Roose, president of Iowa-based U.S. Commodities.
“Right now, the futures prices are being limited by the cash market, which is still well below the futures prices we’re seeing for summer hogs,” Roose said. “Until those cash prices start to go up, there’s only so much the futures market will and can do.”
Most active June lean hog futures closed at 99.450 cents a pound, down 1.550 cents. July lean hogs lost 1.625 cents to settle at 99.600 cents a pound.
Pork carcass cutout value settled at $96.59 per cwt, a loss of $1.03 from Monday, the USDA said.
China, the world’s largest pork consumer, is no longer a viable market for U.S. pork processor Smithfield Foods due to Chinese tariffs, the company’s CEO Shane Smith said on Tuesday. China represents about three per cent of Smithfield’s sales, Smith said.
Smithfield sells “variety meat” like pig stomachs, hearts and heads, which U.S. consumers generally don’t eat, to China.
China’s effective duty on American pork is 172 per cent.
—With files from Reuters
