While beef has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts among US consumers in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, pork prices have only stabilized and partially closed the gap with historic values. The average of weekly averages of the pork cutout value from the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service for the year to date show that packers … Read More

Managed money, a proxy for large commodity investment funds, trimmed their collective net long position in live cattle futures in the week ended Tuesday, maintaining a near-flat position since the first week of September. The data came from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday. Managed money’s new net long live … Read More

Thursday’s Quarterly Hogs and Pigs report from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service could be considered somewhat unfriendly to lean hog futures on Friday, a market analyst said. The mixed nature of the trends in hog inventory were the reason for the “unfriendly” call versus a more bullish or bearish outlook.  The US inventory of … Read More

The percentage of steer and heifer carcasses grading prime so far during 2020 has outpaced normal levels, said Josh Maples, Extension economist at Mississippi State University, in a Livestock Marketing Information Center letter to Extension agents called In The Cattle Markets. The average percent prime for the first seven months of 2020 was 10.6%, the … Read More

With less meat in cold storage than a year ago and fed cattle weighing more than a year ago, Tuesday’s monthly USDA Cold Storage report may be considered neutral to friendly to cattle futures on Wednesday, a market analyst said. At first glance, the report might be considered bearish to cattle markets with frozen supplies … Read More

Data collected to supplement the Federal Reserve Board’s seventh annual Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking showed that US families were faring better financially in July than in April, but many still faced uncertainty regarding layoffs and prospects for returning to work.   THE SURVEYS   The first of two surveys to monitor changes in … Read More

Large commodity investment firms, called managed money, continued a trend of buying live cattle futures during the week ended Tuesday, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report on Friday. Managed money’s collective net long position on Tuesday totaled 57,888 contracts, up 1,121, or 1.97%, from 56,767 the previous … Read More