Hogs Look to Friday After Recovering on Thursday

Lean hog futures settled Thursday with gains of $1.95 to 2.45 on day. USDA’s national average base hog negotiated price was reported at $90.77 on Thursday afternoon, up 49 points from the day prior. The CME Lean Hog Index was back down 2 cents from the previous day on March 4 at $90.20. 

After a couple days of trade talk, President Trump is putting a pause on all tariffs that fall under the USMCA trade agreement umbrella from Mexico and Canada for another month. Canada is also pushing back the planned tariffs on $125 billion of US goods back to April 2.

Export Sales data showed 42,449 MT in pork export business for 2025 in the week of 2/27. That was the second largest total for this MY and 16.6% above the same week last year. Mexico was the buyer of 21,800 MT, with 11,300 MT sold to China. Shipments totaled 32,235 MT, back down from the week prior, but up 0.8% from the same week in 2024. Mexico was the top destination 13,500 MT, with 4,200 MT to Japan.

Census data converted to a carcass basis showed 576.82 million lbs of pork shipped in January, which was down 1.9% from last year and 10.7% below December.

USDA’s Thursday afternoon FOB plant pork cutout value from USDA was a penny higher to $96.49 per cwt. The belly, butt, and loin were all reported lower. USDA estimated Wednesday’s Federally inspected hog slaughter at 485,000 head, with the week to date total at 1.817 million head. That is 141,000 head below last week and 76,135 head behind the same week last year.

Apr 25 Hogs  closed at $86.650, up $1.950,

May 25 Hogs  closed at $89.675, up $2.200

Jun 25 Hogs  closed at $97.025, up $2.450,