Hog futures flat as pork cutout edges higher - CME
Cattle futures slip on fuel price demand fears
29 May 2026
1 minute read
By: Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) live cattle and feeder cattle futures turned lower on Thursday as traders weighed whether consumers would cut back on beef purchases amid higher gasoline and diesel prices, reported Reuters.
Oil prices have been volatile in recent sessions on conflicting signals on the possibility of an end to the three-month Iran war and potential re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz. Traffic through the maritime chokepoint remains a small fraction of the pre-war level.
Beef is typically one of the priciest proteins at grocery stores, and soaring gas prices caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz may dissuade consumers from buying beef, analysts said.
Prices had rallied on Wednesday as expectations of easing US-Iran tensions alleviated concerns about the risk of high prices hurting demand for US beef, analysts said.
August live cattle fell 1.5 cents to end at 241 cents per pound, while August feeder cattle futures fell 1.6 cents to end at 353.025 cents per pound.
For boxed beef, the US Department of Agriculture reported that values for choice cuts fell by $2.40 to $392.32 per hundredweight, while select cuts fell by $3.71 to $385.58 per hundredweight.
Despite lofty prices for beef, meatpackers remained under pressure from high costs for scarce supplies of cattle.
Packers were losing about $266.90 for each head of cattle they slaughtered on Thursday, an improvement from the previous week, according to HedgersEdge.com.
In CME's lean hog market, July futures were unchanged at 102.125 cents per pound.
The wholesale pork carcass cutout rose 76 cents to $99.11 per cwt, according to USDA.
