Lean hog futures are down 20 to 70 cents so far on Wednesday. USDA’s national base hog price was not reported on Wednesday morning due to thin trade. The CME Lean Hog Index was up a penny on December 22 at $83.72. The CME will close early today, with no trade on Thursday.
NASS released their quarterly Hogs & Pigs report on Tuesday afternoon, with December 1 hog inventory at 75.55 million head, up 0.63% from last year. December 1 market hogs were up 0.75% at 69.59 million head, with hogs kept for breeding down 0.87% to 5.952 million head.
Cold Storage data showed pork stocks on November 30 at 371.27 million lbs. That was the lowest November total since 1997 and the lowest for any month since June 2004.
Commitment of Traders data showed spec funds adding 13,365 contracts back to the managed money net long position in the week of 12/16 to 64,836 contracts.
USDA’s pork carcass cutout value from the Wednesday AM report was $2.70 lower at $93.99 per cwt. The ham and belly were the only primals reported lower, with the latter down $14.37. USDA estimated federally inspected hog slaughter for Tuesday at 492,000 head, with the weekly total at 988,000 head. That was 20,000 head larger than last week.
Feb 26 Hogs are at $85.275, down $0.700,
Apr 26 Hogs are at $89.950, down $0.325
May 26 Hogs is at $93.650, down $0.200,
On the date of publication, Austin Schroeder 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.