Commodities : Tuesday, Sept. 15, 1987 : Livestock Prices Soar on Merc

Livestock and meat futures rallied near the close on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Tuesday, with live cattle prices soaring on expectations of a bullish cattle-on-feed report from the U.S. Agriculture Department.

But the seven-state USDA report, issued after the close, proved those predictions wrong and was likely to lead to heavy selling early today, analysts said.

On other markets, soybean futures were lower while the grains were mixed; gold advanced while silver declined. Energy futures were mixed.

Live cattle futures will fall sharply as Tuesday’s buyers become Wednesday’s sellers, said Tom O’Hare, an analyst in New York.

%%% The pork complex settled higher after a steep drop earlier.

Live cattle settled 0.02 to 0.68 cent higher with October at 68.35 cents a pound; feeder cattle were 0.30 cent lower to 0.05 cent higher with September at 78.77 cents a pound; hogs were unchanged to 0.57 cent higher with October at 48.15 cents a pound, and frozen pork bellies were 0.12 cent to 0.63 cent higher with February at 59.30 cents a pound.