CHICAGO, Sept 1 (Reuters) – Chicago Mercantile Exchange live and feeder cattle futures turned lower on Tuesday as market players digested the lifting of livestock movement restrictions in some areas of Texas and New Mexico.
The cattle market is continuing to price in a slew of bearish news in recent weeks. The U.S. temporarily waived import tariffs for beef, weak boxed beef prices and the re-opening of the U.S.-Mexico border to feeder cattle imports.
“In general, cattle doesn’t have much going for it,” said Austin Schroeder, analyst at Brugler Marketing. “There’s not a lot of reason to buy this thing from the fund’s perspective.”
CME October live cattle settled 0.60 cent lower to 212.075 cents per pound. CME October feeder cattle futures fell 1.625 cents to 315.40 cents per pound.
Brazilian billionaire Joesley Batista, one of the owners of meatpacker JBS, met U.S. President Donald Trump on August 20 to discuss how additional beef supply from Brazil could help tame U.S. beef prices if Trump dropped a 26% import tax, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
A day later, Trump said he will temporarily ease beef tariffs to help lower prices and said ground beef imports would sell 25% below current prices, a move that triggered widespread condemnation from the U.S. cattle industry. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Monday the USDA is taking actions to support the beef industry, including loans for small meat processors and the use of conserved land for grazing.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture priced choice cuts of boxed beef at $378.02 per hundredweight on Tuesday, up $2.20 from the previous day, and select cuts rose $2.17 to $360.66 per hundredweight.
The USDA reported wholesale pork carcass values at $97.68 per hundredweight, up 1 cent from a day earlier.
The most actively traded October lean hog contract settled 0.025 cent lower at 83.65 cents per pound.
(Reporting by Heather Schlitz; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
