Cash cattle prices tumble $7 on the week - CME
Hog futures mixed as pork cutout tops $101
13 July 2026
1 minute read
By: Live cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) closed lower on Friday as this week's sharply lower cash cattle prices overshadowed a bounce in wholesale beef prices, Reuters reported, citing analysts.
A setback in crude oil futures coupled with rising Wall Street equities lent underlying support, fuelling optimism about consumer demand for beef.
CME's benchmark August live cattle contract finished down 0.050 cent at 235.200 cents per pound, paring losses after hitting 232.925, its lowest since March 27. The October contract ended down 1.050 cents at 230.550 cents a pound.
CME August feeder cattle settled 1.550 cents lower at 354.600 cents per pound.
Weaker cash markets pressured futures. Slaughter-ready cattle traded in the southern Plains this week at around $248 per hundredweight, according to traders and the US Department of Agriculture, down about $7 from the previous week.
"The big feature is that the cash market has belly-flopped," said Don Roose, president of Iowa-based US Commodities.
Packers' profit margins on beef remain deeply in the red, with slaughterhouses losing $337.25 per head of cattle, according to livestock marketing advisory service HedgersEdge.com LLC.
On the bullish side, the USDA priced choice cuts of beef on Friday afternoon at $382.68 per cwt, up $1.87 from Thursday's three-month low of $380.81.
Hog futures closed mixed. Benchmark CME August lean hogs settled up 0.850 cent at 99.0 cents per pound while October hogs ended down 0.575 cent at 85.075 cents a pound.
The USDA reported the pork carcass cutout value late on Friday at $101.34 per cwt, up $2.83 from Thursday.
Market players were monitoring forecasts for hot weather next week in the US Plains and western Midwest that could curb hog weights, analysts said.
