Hog Futures Turn Red for Close

Front month lean hog futures gave back their initial gains on Friday and went into the weekend 17 to 45 cents in the red. For Feb, that ended the week as a net $1.05 drop. The USDA National Average Base Hog Price was down 84 cents to $86.61. The CME Lean Hog Index for 11/22 was 37 cents lower to $86.17. 

Weekly FAS data showed 45,768 MT of pork was sold for export during the week that ended 11/17. That was led by 18k MT sold to Mexico. 33,201 MT were shipped during the week, again with Mexico as the top destination. USDA had accumulated pork exports at 1.313 MMT through 11/17 – an 18% lag from last year’s pace. 

Pork cutout futures finished the last trade day of the holiday week with 27 to 65 cent losses. USDA estimated the week’s FI hog slaughter at 2.23m head through Saturday. That is below last week due to the Thanksgiving holiday, but is 32k head below the same week last year. USDA had the YTD hog slaughter at 112.977m head, a 2.9% lag behind last year’s pace.  

Dec 22 Hogs  closed at $83.775, down $0.175,

Feb 23 Hogs  closed at $88.500, down $0.300

Dec 22 Pork Cutout  closed at $92.200, down $1.000,