Hog Futures Rally into Close

The May hog contract traded with a $2.45 range on Thursday before ultimately settling $1.22 higher. The other front months also faded through the morning and rallied into the close, but were mixed with 22 cent losses to 87 cent gains. April hogs went off the board at $99.87 to be settled against the Index. CME’s Lean Hog Index for April 12 was up by 9 cents to $99.19. The National Average Base Hog price for Thursday afternoon was down by 6 cents to $97.73. 

USDA reported 23,986 MT of pork was sold for export during the week that ended 4/7. That was down from the 41k MT sale last week, but was still a 40% boost from the same week last year. Mexico was listed as the week’s top buyer. USDA’s weekly data also had 31,831 MT of pork shipped during the week, leaving accumulated shipments at 411,367 MT. 

Pork cutout futures ended the day mostly higher after weakness through midday. USDA’s National Pork Carcass Cutout Value for Thursday afternoon was 37 cents higher to $108.90. USDA estimated FI hog slaughter at 1.898m head for the week through Thursday. That was a 24k increase from last week’s pace but trails the same week last year by 21k head.  

Apr 22 Hogs  closed at $99.875, down $0.025,

May 22 Hogs  closed at $112.750, up $1.225

Apr 22 Pork Cutout  closed at $106.400, down $0.050,