Cattle rebound, hogs firm as July 4th tightens supply - CME

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) cattle values bounced back on Wednesday after sharp declines following the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) announcement earlier this week of a gradual restart of Mexican livestock imports following a prolonged closure over the screwworm pest, reported Reuters. 

Meanwhile, lean hog futures rose on tight stocks ahead of the long July 4 holiday weekend, according to analysts.

Monday's announcement of a phased resumption of imports promised to help bolster supplies that have significantly tightened since the United States shut off shipments from south of the border on May 11.

That led to weaker cattle futures earlier in the week, but "once some of these border crossings are opened, the volume that's going to come through is going to be less than what we've had in the past, because now they have so many more hoops they have to jump through," said Altin Kalo, head economist at Steiner Consulting Group.

The choice boxed beef cutout was down $0.74 cent on Wednesday afternoon at $394.86 per cwt, while the select cutout rose $0.25 to $380.31 per cwt, according to the USDA.

Lean hogs rose, after seeing a significant selloff in the previous few days. "After the holiday, pork is still going to be relatively tight," said Kalo. "I think there are people looking for bargains making a judgement that after the holiday we're going to see another run up in wholesale prices," he said.