Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures closed lower on Monday, hit by profit-taking and technical selling after the benchmark December contract hit a one-month high on Friday, traders said.
A stronger close in corn futures pressured feeder cattle futures.
CME December live cattle futures settled down 0.55 cent at 130.425 cents/lb. (all figures US$). In feeder cattle, the most-active January contract fell 1.975 cents to end at 159.55 cents/lb.
“Live cattle futures ran into chart-related selling today, taking back a bit of last week’s solid gains,” Arlan Suderman, StoneX chief commodities economist, wrote in a client note. The 50- and 100-day moving averages for the CME December live cattle contract have converged near 131 cents, creating overhead resistance.
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Wholesale beef prices have been in a steady decline since late August, pressuring cattle futures, but beef values have stabilized since Oct. 13 when choice cuts dipped to $280.02 per hundredweight (cwt). Choice cuts have hovered near that level in recent days, firming late last week and then falling 15 cents on Monday afternoon to $280.09/cwt, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported.
Feeder cattle sagged as Chicago Board of Trade corn futures rose on Monday for a third straight session, signaling rising costs for livestock feed. CBOT corn rose more than one per cent on Monday on bullish weekly export data and worries that high fertilizer costs could limit plantings in the coming year.
CME lean hog futures closed higher on Monday with the benchmark December contract settling up 0.475 cent at 78.75 cents/lb. February lean hogs closed up 0.45 cent at 81.775 cents/lb.
— Julie Ingwersen is a Reuters commodities correspondent in Chicago.
