Hogs Mostly Red at Midday

Thursday trading in the lean hog futures market has the board mostly lower so far. Losses are limited to 42 cents pas October’s 35 cent gain. The USDA National Average Base Hog price was $1.36 weaker to $93.92 in the AM report. The CME Lean Hog Index for 9/16 was another 45 cents stronger at $98.42. 

Weekly Export Sales data showed 28,972 MT of pork was sold during the week of 9/15. That was 16% above the week prior led by Mexico with half of the total. USDA also had pork shipments set at 1.045 MMT for the year, down 21% from last year’s record pace. 

China will release another 14,400 MT of frozen pork from state reserves on 9/23. 

Front month pork cutout futures are trading mixed on limited volume and open interest. October is up by 12 cents so far, compared to the April ’23 contract’s 7 cent loss. USDA’s National Pork Carcass Cutout value was back up by $4 to $104.35 this morning. USDA estimates the WTD FI hog slaughter at 1.477m head through Wednesday. That is up by 12k head from the week prior and is 49k head above the same week last year’s pace. 

Oct22 Hogs  are at $94.750, up $0.325,

Dec 22 Hogs  are at $86.350, down $0.100

Oct22 Pork Cutout  is at $103.500, up $0.125,