By Benjamin Parkin

CHICAGO--Livestock futures inched up on Wednesday despite growing unease about a glut in the cattle and hog markets.

April lean hog futures stabilized after three days of losses, rising 0.3% to 65.300 cents a pound at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Analysts expect to see an increase in the domestic hog herd when the U.S. Department of Agriculture releases a quarterly inventory report Thursday. They anticipate that the USDA will also show farmers aiming to expand it even further, exacerbating concerns about an oversupply of hogs on the market.

Given that production is increasing as pork prices stagnate, analysts expect larger herds to weigh on the futures market.

"We're seeing a topping out of hog prices," said Tim Hackbarth of Zaner Ag Hedge.

Cattle futures also rose on Wednesday, with the CME April contract gaining 0.5% to $1.21350 a pound. An online cattle auction earlier in the session saw sales volume and prices decrease from the previous week, another sign that a recent rally in the market was coming to an end.

A little under 2,000 cattle sold for an average of $1.31 a pound at the Fed Cattle Exchange auction. While cattle further north in Nebraska fetched prices as high as $1.33, cattle in Texas sold at a low end of $1.26.

Meatpackers had plenty of cattle supply committed for the coming weeks, and were under no pressure to fork out larger sums to secure animals for slaughter, analysts said. Wholesale beef prices are also falling, which will likely drag cash cattle and futures down further as slaughter-ready cattle increase in the spring.

"There's no shortage of U.S. cattle," said independent trader Coby Tresner.

Write to Benjamin Parkin at benjamin.parkin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 29, 2017 15:38 ET (19:38 GMT)

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