CME cattle futures climb on thin supply, robust demand
By Karl Plume
CHICAGO, Oct 14 (Reuters) -Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures climbed on Monday on tight supplies and strong demand, while rising beef prices helped to bolster packer margins, analysts said.
"The beef packer is back in the black. He's been able to move the boxed beef up, and the (cattle) numbers we know are going to continue to tighten," said Don Roose, president of brokerage U.S. Commodities.
Beef will face seasonal competition from turkey heading into the Thanksgiving holiday, but a shift to colder weather could slow cattle weight gains enough to counter those demand headwinds, he added.
The choice boxed beef cutout rose $2.10 on Monday to $313.32 per hundredweight (cwt), the highest since Aug. 26, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Select beef gained 38 cents to $289.10 per cwt.
Higher beef prices have helped to shore up margins for beef packers, who on Monday were estimated to be making $6.90 per head, up from estimated losses of $62.45 per head a week ago, according to livestock marketing advisory service HedgersEdge.
CME December live cattle futures LCZ24 settled up 0.350 cent at 187.925 cents per pound. CME November feeder cattle FCX24 ended down 0.225 cent at 249.575 cents per pound.
Lean hog futures dropped on Monday in a profit-taking and technical-selling pullback after scaling to five-month peaks on Friday.
Benchmark CME December lean hog futures LHZ24 ended down 1.850 cents at 75.800 cents per pound.
Reporting by Karl Plume; Editing by Shreya Biswas
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