Large commodity investment index firms, known as managed money, continued buying live cattle futures in the week ended Tuesday as hedgers continued to sell short. The information was gleaned from the weekly Commitments of Trader report Friday from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.   FUNDS BUY CCATTLE   Tuesday, managed money had a collective net … Read More

West Coast ports are handling more cargo than normal, picking up some of the slack from the Longshoremen’s strike at East Coast and Gulf ports, according to various news services. Plus, many importers and exporters made the switch in the weeks and months leading up to this week’s strike.  The end result is that product … Read More

The US beef cow herd inventory was pressured the last few years because historically low prices and drought conditions incentivized producers to sell, said Rob Ziegler, Extension specialist at the University of Wyoming, in a Livestock Marketing Information Center letter called In The Cattle Markets. Droughts in 2011-2014 and in 2021-2023, coincided with the contraction … Read More

The East Coast and Gulf dockworkers strike has the potential to do great harm to the US economy. Inflation could be stimulated again just when it was coming to heel, and some of the union demands could keep efficiencies from being implemented, putting US ports behind those of even some second- and third-world ports for … Read More

Large commodity index funds, known as managed money, expanded their collective net long live cattle futures position in the week ended last Tuesday, Sep. 24, as hedgers took on a larger total net short position. The data came from the weekly Commitments of Traders report from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Friday.   MANAGED MONEY … Read More

The US inventory of all hogs and pigs on Sep. 1, was reported Thursday at 76.480 million head by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. That was up 347,000, or 0.46%, from 76.133 million on Sep. 1, 2023, and up 1.269 million, or 1.69%, from 75.211 million on June 1, 2024. Of that, 6.044 million … Read More

Total red meat supplies in freezers Aug. 31 were down about 1% from the previous month and down about 2% from last year, according to the monthly Cold Storage report from the USDA’s Nation Agricultural Statistics Service Thursday. Total pounds of beef in freezers were down about 2% from the previous month and down slightly … Read More