By Benjamin Parkin 
 

Cattle futures slid, ending a multiday winning streak as traders waited for cash trades to guide the market.

Contracts for live cattle rose for five consecutive days, before sliding on Friday. Futures traders had anticipated that the week's cash, or physical cattle, trade would trend higher this week.

But few sales had taken place by the end of Friday's session, as meatpackers and feedyards faced off over prices. Packers were bidding around $118 per 100 pounds on a live basis, which would be around $2 lower than last week, while feedyards were asking for as much as $124 and $125, market observers said.

Sporadic trades took place earlier in the week, including around 400 head of cattle sold in the western Corn Belt at $121, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That was higher than last week's average.

The futures rally lost steam, however, on the lack of cash trading volume. Observers said the bulk of trade would likely come later in the afternoon or evening. February-dated live cattle futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange closed slightly lower at $1.219 a pound, while later-month contracts fell further.

Wholesale beef prices have fallen through most of this week on lukewarm demand, and were down a further 58 cents to $205.11 per 100 pounds as of Friday morning.

Hog futures also ended the week lower. CME February lean hog contracts fell 1.3% to 72.075 cents a pound.

Physical hog prices have cooled this week. Prices were were steady on Wednesday and Thursday, and were expected steady to lower again on Friday. Analysts say packers have eased off the rate of hog slaughter in order to help rebuild their margins. That's weighed on the futures market, which gave back most of its gains for the week.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 19, 2018 15:28 ET (20:28 GMT)

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