Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) cattle futures closed higher on Thursday, with feeder cattle continuing to surge on strong cash market prices, Reuters reported, citing market analysts.
Prices in the cash cattle markets continued to support futures at a time when US cattle supplies are historically tight, analysts said. And even though wholesale prices dropped earlier in the day, retail meat prices remain lofty, analysts said.
For boxed beef, the US Department of Agriculture reported that values for choice cuts eased by $1.80 to $397.14 per hundredweight (cwt) on Thursday morning. USDA reported that select cuts dropped by $1.73 to $376.41 per cwt.
While the cash cattle markets are showing some signs of cooling slightly this week, they are maintaining a big premium to futures, said Don Roose, president of US Commodities. That premium makes cattle futures seem underpriced, he said.
In Iowa, there were cash bids of $260 per cwt this week, but packers passed on those prices, Roose said. As a result, he said, analysts are expecting the cash trade in the northern markets to ease this week to around $257 to $258 per cwt.
"Still, this has been a cash-led bull market," Roose said. "The futures can only drop so far because of what's happening in the cash market."
CME benchmark August live cattle ended 0.700 cent higher at 247.225 cents per pound, and the thinly traded June contract set a fresh high during the session before settling up 1.400 cent at $257.400 per pound.
Meanwhile, CME August feeder cattle futures closed up 0.375 cent at 373.300 cents per pound.
CME lean hog futures were mixed. The US Department of Agriculture's hogs and pigs report, released after the close of trade on Thursday, showed the total hog herd was roughly the same as the previous year, while analysts surveyed by Reuters on average had expected the government to show a slightly larger herd, at 100.9% of a year ago.
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