Cattle Futures - Live Cattle Firm
US - Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures ended upslightly in response to last Friday's better-than-expected fed cattle sales prices, midday boxed beef's firmness and longs that shifted some of theirspot-August positions into October during the Goldman roll period. Feeder cattle closed mixed.Meanwhile, hogs posted an uneven settlement and most pork bellies settled sharply lower.
Live cattle's August and October trading months initially sprinted to seven-week highs. Early advances were spurred by residual buying and a fedcattle trade in the Plains on Friday that was $3 to $4 per hundredweight above the previous week's sales.
And although profiteers slid money off the table as contracts ticked upward,midday boxed beef's rise motivated scale-down August buyers. What's more,October/December and October/February bull positioning elevated October, but sometimes pressured December and February.
Nonetheless, far-month cattle buyers slowly made their way into distantcontracts because of less-threatening Chicago Board of Trade corn futures.
Without the benefit of early-week cash business, floor participants areexpected to focus on whether beef cutouts can sustain upward mobility. Sometraders will also track CBOT corn's progress ahead of Thursday's federal government production, supply and demand report.
However, the continuation of the Goldman roll will take precedence because of thousands of contracts left in August that are required to be moved intoOctober.
RJ O'Brien bought August and sold October outright. JP Morgan and ADM wereamong August buyers. Man Financial bought October and sold August on the roll.Rosenthal and Fimat were cited as August/October rollers. Cadent Financial sold December.
Feeder cattle ended mixed on spillover live cattle support, August/September bear spreading, initial profit-taking and slightly weaker CBOT feed grain contracts.
August live cattle settled at 92.52 cents per pound, up 2 points. Octoberended at 97.17 cents, a gain of 27 points.
August feeder cattle finished 22 points lower at 114.47 cents. September closed up 10 points at 115.37 cents.
Source: FXSTREET