The following article is from Bloomberg:
Cattle Gain on Signs of Rising Meatpacker Demand; Hogs Are Little Changed
By Whitney McFerron
Cattle futures rose, heading for the biggest annual gain in 32 years, on signs that U.S. livestock supplies trail meatpacker demand. Feeder-cattle climbed to a record, and hogs were little changed.
Spot-market steers rose to $1.05 a pound on Dec. 28, the highest since November 2003, and may have sold for $1.06 yesterday in Kansas, said Chad Henderson, a market analyst with Prime Agricultural Consultants Inc. in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Wholesale choice beef climbed to a two-week high yesterday at $1.6282 a pound.
“Packers have bid up pretty aggressively for cattle,” Henderson said. “There’s a little tighter supply, and they want to secure their inventory. They’ll push boxed beef up afterward, and see if there’s any resistance.”
Cattle futures for February delivery climbed 0.475 cent, or 0.4 percent, to $1.08725 a pound at 9:39 a.m. on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. As of yesterday, futures were up 26 percent this year, heading for the biggest annual gain since 1978.
Feeder-cattle futures for March settlement gained 0.75 cent, or 0.6 percent, to $1.24825 a pound. Earlier, the price reached $1.2495, the highest since the commodity started trading in November 1971. As of yesterday, futures were up 29 percent this year.
Hog futures for February settlement rose 0.1 cent to 79.7 cents a pound. Earlier, the price reached 79.9 cents, matching yesterday’s intraday peak, which was the highest since Aug. 3. Before today, the commodity was up 21 percent this year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Whitney McFerron in Chicago at wmcferron1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Patrick McKiernan at pmckiernan@bloomberg.net.
