Commodities for Friday, Feb. 22, 1985 : Livestock Futures Lower

Livestock futures prices fell Friday as traders sold off in anticipation of government estimates of cattle on feedlots and inventories of frozen pork bellies that analysts described as “bullish.”

The reports, released by the Agriculture Department at the close of trading, are likely to spark a rally in livestock pits Monday on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, said Bob Kuhn, an analyst with Dean Witter Reynolds in Chicago.

“These reports are decidedly bullish,” Kuhn said. “The number of cattle on feedlots was up only 3% when 5% was expected.”

Kuhn explained that the lower-than-anticipated number of cattle on feed should boost prices as supplies diminish. “The implication is that there aren’t all that many cattle left on the feedlots,” he said.

The number of frozen pork bellies in cold storage last month was set at 53.6 million, a decrease from the 57.3 million the month before. Kuhn said the pork stockpile is finally declining in the aftermath of the 1983 drought that sent feed prices soaring and forced pork producers to cut back.

Wheat was higher, corn was mixed and soybeans were lower on the Chicago Board of Trade.