Cattle, Pork Bellies Mixed

Cattle and frozen pork bellies were mixed and live hogs were mostly lower in light trading Monday on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Traders said that prices of cattle could resume a downtrend today, however, as a report on the number of cattle in feed lots in the nation’s major beef-producing states showed slightly more animals than had been anticipated.

The report, released by the Agriculture Department after the close of trading, showed an increase of 3.6% in the number of animals on feed lots in the 13 major beef producting states.

“It was a little bit on the negative side,” said Robert Saathoff, a livestock analyst in New York with Prudential-Bache Securities. However, Saathoff said, heifers accounted for most of the increase.

“There will be a little less tonnage than if they were all steers. “But that’s about the only positive aspect of the report,” he said.

Tom Morgan, a livestock analyst in Chicago with Heinold Commodities, said a surplus of cattle built up during the quarter.

“Before the market can go higher, we have to get that backlog behind us,” he said.