Lean hogs faded back from their initial Thursday gains to finish the day mixed across the front months. Dec, May, and June were all less than 5 cents in the red, while Feb and April closed up by 35 cents. USDA’s National Average Base Hog price dropped by $1.26 to $67.01 in the PM quote. The CME Lean Hog Index was 42 cents higher at $76.69 for 11/07.
USDA’s weekly Export Sales report showed 49k MT of pork was sold during the week that ended 11/2. That was the largest single week sale since the week of April 20th. Pork shipments were also a 19-wk high at 35.5k MT, bringing the yearly total to 1.326 MMT.
USDA reduced their projection for quarterly pork production. Q4 of ’23 was 94m lbs lower, Q1 of ’24 came down 50m, followed by a -45, -35, and -35m lbs by Q4 ’24. 2023’s total output is listed at 27.217 billion lbs, with 27.730 billion as the ’24 projected total.
Pork cutout futures were 37 cents higher across the front months at Thursday’s closing bell. USDA’s National Pork Carcass Cutout Value was $86.94 on Thursday afternoon, up by 36 cents. USDA estimated FI hog slaughter at 1.9333m head for the week through Thursday. That is up 2k from last week, but trails the 1.954m head during the same week last year.
Dec 23 Hogs closed at $71.450, down $0.050,
Feb 24 Hogs closed at $75.200, up $0.350
Dec 23 Pork Cutout closed at $81.350, up $0.375,
On the date of publication, Alan Brugler did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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