Live cattle prices are growing in futures market
Live cattle futures have grown to a two-month high this week as the winter storm in US Plains has disrupted the activity of the slaughterhouses in the region. It is the third straight session of rising prices on Chicago Mercantile Exchange, as the analyst and traders reported for Drovers magazine.
Front-month Chicago Mercantile Exchange February live cattle finished up 0.700 cent at 125.425 cents per pound, rising to the highest level since November 30. Most-active CME April live cattle was up 0.350 cent to 125.150 cents.
Also, choice-grade wholesale beef gained $1.14 to $207.99 per cwt (45,3 kg), as reported by the US Department of Agriculture. Investment funds are particularly interested in making long bets in this rally, as Kevin Bost, president of Procurement Strategies is admitting: "We got a big slug of snow, which has affected the cattle prices and propped the beef up. The funds have been good buyers and that's always a strong influence".
After the close of futures trading, USDA reported that 489.5 million pounds of beef were in the US freezers as of 31 December 2017. The volume is up by 4.3 million pounds from the one reported at the end of November but below the volume of 504.3 million pounds predicted by analysts.
That could be seen as a result of a drop in the dollar to the lowest level since 2014 against of a basket of currencies which encouraged the beef exports from the US.
1 pound = 0.45359237 kilograms
(Photo source: PxHere)
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