Hog futures mixed as pork prices slide - CME
Cattle futures fall on profit-taking and demand concerns
24 June 2026
1 minute read
By: Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) cattle futures closed lower on Tuesday amid a spate of profit-taking and investor concerns over Americans' willingness to potentially pay even higher beef prices, Reuters reported, citing market analysts.
The US dollar surged to a 13-month high as markets adjusted expectations for a more hawkish stance from the Federal Reserve, and the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 closed at more than one-week lows.
A stronger dollar can make beef more expensive for international buyers, and weigh on export demand, while expectations of interest rate increases later this year could boost both operational costs for cattle producers and possibly lead to higher meat prices at grocery stores.
Wholesale prices have continued to climb, too. In boxed beef, the US Department of Agriculture priced choice cuts $4.20 higher at $400.26 per hundredweight (cwt) on Tuesday morning. Select cuts rose $7.18 to $382.771 per cwt.
Both December live cattle and November feeder cattle futures had been trending in a sideways pattern for months, said Karl Setzer, partner at Consus Ag Marketing, in an analyst note Tuesday.
But there has been more liquidity and more volatile price swings in the cattle markets lately, particularly in the November feeder contract, as funds have been adjusting their positions and cash markets have remained elevated on tight supplies, analysts said.
CME benchmark August live cattle ended 1.350 cents lower at 246.000 cents per pound. CME August feeder cattle futures closed 2.275 cents lower at 368.150 cents per pound.
Meanwhile, October hog futures have been trending nearly straight down over the past several weeks as global pork demand has declined, as has managed money interest in the contract, Setzer said.
Wholesale prices for pork continued to soften. The USDA priced pork carcasses at $95.54 per cwt on Tuesday morning, down 54 cents. Pork packer margins have also slumped into the red, fueling expectations of easing demand for hogs to expand the slaughter, market analysts said.
However, analysts said a sense that funds had overshot their short positions in hog futures from a technical standpoint gave the market a bit of a boost during the day.
CME lean hog futures were mixed. Most-active August hogs settled 0.500 cent higher at 97.225 cents, while nearby July, December and back-end months eased.
