Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) livestock futures fell on Thursday, tracking US stock markets lower, as investors digested the latest round of corporate earnings and looked for signs of progress toward a peace deal between the US and Iran, reported Reuters.
Market analysts said that funds and other beef traders reacted negatively to what has been a relatively sleepy cash market this week, with limited trades of $235 per hundredweight (cwt) both in the northern and southern regions - and despite the fact that those cash trades were up $3 per cwt from a week earlier.
"So goes the stock market, so goes the confidence in people paying for high-priced meat," said Don Roose, president of US Commodities. "People are starting to grow concerned about consumer demand for beef longer term, especially now with the economy being a little shaky."
"The trade knows that the supply is, for the most part, staying the same. So the focus is going to be on demand," Roose added.
Meanwhile, beef wholesale prices were mixed on Thursday afternoon. The US Department of Agriculture priced choice cuts of beef sharply lower at $362.87 per cwt, down $5.10. Select cuts were priced 97 cents higher at $349.03 per cwt.
CME August live cattle futures settled down 2.950 cents on Thursday at 231.225 cents per pound. Most-active October futures ended 4.550 cents lower at 224.925 cents a pound.
CME August feeder cattle futures fell 5.275 cents to 348.050 cents per pound, while all back-month contracts also ended the session lower.
Hog futures also fell. The USDA priced the pork carcass cutout on Thursday afternoon at $99.26 per cwt, down $1.79 from Wednesday.
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