Thin holiday trade drags live cattle, hog futures - CME

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) live cattle and lean hog futures fell while feeder cattle futures rose on year-end positioning, Reuters reported, citing analysts, with the trade thin between Christmas and New Year holidays.

Many funds still have net long positions, said Doug Houghton, analyst at Brock Associates, "If they're taking profits, that's going to weigh on things," he said.

In lean hogs, the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) quarterly hogs and pigs report last week showed larger numbers than expected, also weighing on futures, said Houghton.

The USDA on Monday afternoon reported pork bellies fell $4.50 to $124.08 per hundredweight.

The CME benchmark February lean hog futures fell 0.050 cent to 84.475 cents per pound.

The CME February live cattle settled 0.675 cents lower at 228.975 cents per pound. March feeder cattle settled 1.250 cents higher at 341.675 cents per pound.

In cattle, Houghton noted, "there's still a lot of trepidation in the market about when the USDA might re-open cattle imports from Mexico, but it's hard to say from day to day that that's really a factor."