LIVESTOCK-CME cattle, hog futures ease after record highs

By Julie Ingwersen

CHICAGO, June 12 (Reuters) - Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures closed mostly lower on Thursday, consolidating after setting all-time highs earlier this week, but surging wholesale beef prices and strong cash cattle markets continued to underpin the market.

Benchmark CME August live cattle futures LCQ25 settled down 1.075 cents at 216.950 cents per pound. August feeder cattle futures FCQ25 finished 0.175 cent higher at 311.250 cents per pound but stayed inside the previous day's trading range.

Market-ready cattle traded in Kansas cash markets as high as $238 per hundredweight, traders said, while cash trades in Texas held near $235, steady with last week.

The choice beef cutout rose $1.96 to $376.72 per cwt on Thursday afternoon, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, and select cuts rose $2.32 to $363.07 per cwt. Both readings were the highest in five years, supported by tight U.S. cattle supplies and brisk seasonal demand for beef ahead of the Fathers Day and Fourth of July holidays.

In monthly supply-demand reports released on Thursday, the USDA lowered its forecast of U.S. 2025 beef production to 26.358 million pounds, from 26.423 million in May, citing reduced steer and heifer slaughter in the second quarter and reduced cow slaughter for the remainder of the year. The government left its 2025 pork production forecast unchanged at 27.996 million pounds.

CME hog futures ended narrowly mixed with the most-active July and August contracts hovering near life-of-contract highs set a day earlier. Like the cattle market, hog futures have been supported by firm wholesale meat prices and strong cash hog markets.

July lean hogs LHN25 inched up 0.050 cent to close at 108.900 cents per pound and August hogs LHQ25 ended down 0.025 cent at 110.175 cents. The October LHV25 and December LHZ25 contracts set life-of-contract highs.

The USDA priced pork carcasses on Thursday afternoon at $114.50 per cwt, up $1.42 from Wednesday.

Weak export sales capped rallies. The USDA reported export sales of U.S. pork in the week ended June 5 at 9,700 metric tons, down 70% from the prior four-week average. EXP/PRK