Lean Hogs Face Friday Direction

The lean hog futures went home on Thursday with losses of 30 to 90 cents in the front months. The USDA National Average Base Hog price for Thursday afternoon was $4.12 weaker at $94.03. The CME Lean Hog Index for 9/20 was $97.96, down by 40 cents. 

The USDA’s Cold Storage report showed pork inventories increased 5.561m lbs (1.1%) during  August to 532.039 million. The pork stocks were 17% above last year, though July had been 19.2% above July ’21. The monthly update showed 32.49m lbs of bellies in the cooler. That was nearly double last year’s inventory while only 1.44m lbs above Aug 2020. 

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. 

Pork cutout futures closed the session 20 cents to $1.25 weaker on the day. USDA’s National Pork Carcass Cutout value was $103.88 in the PM quote, up by $3.53. USDA estimated the WTD FI hog slaughter at 1.929m head through Thursday. That compares to 1.917m head during last week and 1.874m head during the same week last year. 

Oct 22 Hogs  closed at $94.125, down $0.300,

Dec 22 Hogs  closed at $85.675, down $0.775

Oct 22 Pork Cutout  closed at $103.000, down $0.375,