CME: Lean Hog ( CME:HE1! ), Live Cattle ( CME:LE1! ) Here is the official narrative on US inflation: The Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening policy has successfully brought down inflation rate from a four-decade high to about 3 percent, delivering much needed reliefs to US consumers. Government data supports this narrative. Take food costs as an example: In...
CME: Lean Hog ( CME:HE1! ) Throughout 2023, U.S. grocery shoppers find that beef prices rise rapidly. According to the National Daily Cattle and Beef report, published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Choice Beef averaged $290 per cwt (100 pounds) on December 8th. This represents a 16% increase year-over-year and is 21% above the 5-year average. In...
In a previous article, "A Beefy Premium" , we delved into the growing divergence between Live Cattle and Lean Hogs. Since then, this disparity has only broadened. Currently, we're seeing a historic peak in both the absolute price difference (Live Cattle – Lean Hog) and the price ratio (Live Cattle/Lean Hog). To comprehend the drivers of this divergence,...
Live Cattle Futures is probably an asset that you have never looked at and never thought to trade. However, it has been in it's own bull market for the past 3 years ! Having said that, now the chart is showing clear weakness and giving us the perfect entry to the trade with an incredibly low risk and high potential reward. Hitting the first tp would keep it...
CME: Live Cattle ( CME:LE1! ), Lean Hog ( CME:HE1! ) When I started my career in commodity futures two decades ago, I took lectures from a former trader at the CME livestock pit. Mike used his favorite trade to explain the complex concept of inter-commodity spread. Here it is: Beef and pork typically had a retail price difference of $1 per pound. For example, a...
Live cattle recently hit an all-time high, leaving us wondering if the rally has gone too far. The front month contract reached 177 on April 13, surpassing the previous record set in November 2014. Meanwhile, lean hogs have been trading lower since last year. One way to assess this trend is to look at the spread between the two livestock markets. Both the...
Kansas City Wheat and Live Cattle charts looking scary similar. Hope all you cowboys out their are hedging a few years out at these prices.
There are only 3 inflation scenarios that will happen till the end of 2023: i. Improve CPI to 2% ii. Range CPI to hover between the band of 5-8% iii. Continue to trend higher breaking above 9% Many investors believe scenario (i) & (iii) will be unlikely. 70% of the investors feel that CPI should settle unchanged from how the year started at between 5%-8%....
One of our algorithmic, trend-following systems entered long at Live Cattle futures at 149. The system is holding the position with a guaranteed and progressive trailing stop loss of 0.3% and could average new positions if the trend is confirmed in the next weeks. In recent weeks we have converted a few algorithmic trading programs from Pro Real Code to Python,...
We’re going to go out on a limb here and say your date night budgets and recessionary risk are likely inversely correlated! As recessionary risk starts to weigh on investors’ minds, purse strings for date nights are likely to be tightened, which spells trouble for the date night classic, wine & steak pair. Cattle Futures have joined the broad market selloff over...
Where are the meat or commodity prices heading? Meat prices have been rising at a rate of about 3% per annual over the last 40 years. Meat is what I classified as an edible commodity, so is corn, wheat and rice. And as these commodities start picking up in prices, they are the one that will give the central banks a huge headache and to consider to hike its...
CME:LE1! The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released July non-farm payrolls on August 5th and July Consumer Price Index (CPI) on August 10th. Both reports beat market expectations. About 528,000 new jobs were created in July, well above June level. Annualized Inflation was lowered to 8.5% from the record 9.1% in June. While strong jobs data and taming...
Feeder Cattle Technicals (August): August feeder cattle bulled back to trendline support (see chart below), which was defended into the close. Futures finished the session right near the 50-day moving average, 171.00. Grains were firm yesterday which may have added a headwind to feeders. Grains are firm again this morning which may keep that headwind in place on...
Wednesday's Slaughter is estimated at 126,000. Unchanged from last week, but 5,000 more than the same week last year. Wednesday's Cutout Values Choice: 268.22, Down 1.22 from the previous day. Select245.68, Down 1.14 from the previous day. Choice/Select Spread: 22.54 5 Area Average Cattle Price Live Steer: 143.81 Live Heifer: 142.99 Dressed Steer: 229.10 Dressed...
Monday’s Slaughter is estimated at 125,000. Unchanged from last week, but 8,000 more than the same week last year. Monday’s Cutout Values Choice: 270.54, Down .78 from the previous day. Select: 247.45, Down 1.44 from the previous day. Choice/Select Spread: 23.09 5 Area Average Cattle Price Live Steer: 140.14 Live Heifer: 138.35 Dressed Steer: 226.03 Dressed...
Feeder Cattle Commitments of Traders Update: Friday’s CoT report showed Managed Money were net buyers of 3,798 futures/options contracts, through June 7th. This shrinks their net short position to 5,472. Broken down, that is 10,900 longs VS 16,372 shorts. Technicals (August): August feeder cattle retreated on Friday after failing against technical resistance,...
Where can we feel the impact of high inflation most directly in our daily lives? Food and energy! Livestock is a market that certainly deserves more of our attention. Surging energy prices (especially natural gas) have led to high fertilizer prices, which pushed up grain prices. Eventually, that gets translated into higher prices for livestock which are heavily...