USA: Lean hog, live cattle futures end higher

Live cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) ended higher on Wednesday as expectations of tightening cattle supplies and a setback in grain prices sparked a round of buying, Reuters reported, citing traders. The most-active CME live cattle futures, for February delivery, settled up 1.200 cents at 154.250 cents per pound, a day after finding chart support at the contract's 200-day moving average. The spot December contract rose 0.525 cent to finish at 151.800 cents per pound. "Fundamentally, both cattle and hogs are still bullish because of our lower supplies," said Sherman Newlin, an analyst with Risk Management Commodities. Ahead of the US Department of Agriculture's monthly Cattle on Feed report due on Friday, analysts surveyed by Reuters on average expected the government to report the number of cattle in US feedlots as of November 1 at 11.745 million head, down 1.7% from a year ago. Analysts on average estimated feedlot placements in October at 2.168 million ...