Cattle Gain on Outlook for Shrinking U.S. Supplies; Hogs Advance

Cattle futures advanced for a second day on speculation that U.S. beef supplies are tightening as the feedlot herd shrinks. Hog prices rose.

Wholesale beef rose to $1.9617 a pound yesterday, a 1.1 percent gain that was the biggest since Oct. 15, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. Feedlots have reduced the number of cattle offered for slaughter, said Lane Broadbent, a vice president at KIS Futures in Oklahoma City. Meatpackers processed 249,000 head in the first two days of this week, down 1.6 percent from a year earlier, USDA data show.

“Their showlist size is going to be tighter, especially if we have any kind of demand in here,” Broadbent said in a telephone interview.

Cattle futures for February delivery rose less than 0.1 percent to $1.31975 a pound at 10:11 a.m. on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, after gaining as much as 0.3 percent. Through yesterday, the commodity is up 8.6 percent this year as the U.S. herd shrunk.

Feeder-cattle futures for January settlement climbed 0.5 percent to $1.529 a pound on the CME.

Hog futures for February settlement advanced 0.1 percent to 84.2 cents a pound in Chicago. Prices fell 0.2 percent this year through yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Campbell in Chicago at ecampbell14@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at sstroth@bloomberg.net