The livestock ETNs include large weights in these futures markets. For instance, COW includes 59.3% live cattle and 40.7% lean hogs. UBC tracks 55.8% live cattle and 44.2% lean hogs.
Looking ahead, the livestock market may continue to struggle as beef struggles at the retail level, losing market share to poultry in recent years, while pork production is expected to hit records this year.
“There’s still a ton of competition from cheaper protein, and that’s not going away any time soon,” Hackbarth said of beef.
For more information on the commodities market, visit our commodity ETFs category.
iPath Bloomberg Livestock Subindex Total Return ETN