CHICAGO, June 9 (Reuters) – Chicago Mercantile Exchange cattle futures rose on Tuesday on expectations of steady to stronger cash cattle trades this week and ideas that futures were underpriced relative to the cash market, traders said.
Market-ready cattle traded in the cash market last week at around $256 to $258 per hundredweight, while CME live cattle futures were trading below the equivalent of $250 per cwt.
“It’s just too much of a discount,” said Cassie Fish, an analyst and industry expert.
Front-month CME June live cattle futures settled 1.500 cents higher on Tuesday at 248.025 cents per pound, and most-active August cattle closed up 2.975 cents at 239.700 cents a pound.
CME August feeder cattle rose 3.450 cents to settle at 354.150 cents per pound.
Traders continued to monitor outbreaks of New World screwworm parasite after the first domestic infestation since the 1960s was found in a Texas calf last week. The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed a total of six U.S. screwworm cases as of Tuesday.
The pest does not affect meat, Oklahoma State University extension livestock specialist Derrell Peel said in a weekly newsletter. Screwworm “will affect relatively few animals and is not something that will affect the cattle supply or beef production. It also is not a food safety issue,” Peel wrote.
Still, it remains unclear whether an expanding outbreak will affect consumer demand for beef.
After the CME close, Mexico’s agriculture ministry said the country will stop most imports of live animals from the U.S. after screwworm cases were confirmed in Texas and New Mexico.
Mexico, which has registered more than 28,200 cases of screwworm since November 2024, said it aimed to protect its cattle herd in the northern states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua and Sinaloa, where there are currently no confirmed cases of screwworm.
CME hog futures continued to decline. Benchmark CME July lean hogs settled down 1.225 cents at 96.150 cents per pound.
The USDA priced pork carcasses late on Tuesday at $95.96 per hundredweight, down $2.50 from Monday.
(Reporting by Julie Ingwersen; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
