Following losses through the week, including 3 triple digit losses, lean hogs firmed up for the weekend. At the close, futures were back up by $0.52 to $1.60, save for the December contract which was down by 25 cents. USDA’s National Average Afternoon Base Hog price was $6.91 weaker on Friday at $99.13. CME’s Lean Hog Index for April 20 was another 32 cents stronger to $101.25.
Monthly USDA Cold Storage data showed there were 487.19m lbs of pork in the cooler in March. That was up 1.5% from Feb stocks, and 8% above the March ’21 figure – which was the tightest for the month since March ’04. Pork bellies specifically were 56.779m lbs. That was also 13% higher on the month and up by 60% yr/yr.
Pork cutout futures closed $1 to $1.15 higher on Friday. USDA’s National Pork Carcass Cutout Value for Friday afternoon was $1.08 stronger to $111.28. USDA’s estimate for the week’s federally inspected hog slaughter was 2.374m head through Saturday. That is 33k head above last week’s pace but trails the same week last year by 97,000 head. YTD hog slaughter was 39FI hog slaughter for the week through Thursday was 1.797m head. That is down 101k wk/wk and 138k head yr/yr.
May 22 Hogs closed at $111.850, up $1.000,
Jun 22 Hogs closed at $118.775, up $1.600
May 22 Pork Cutout closed at $118.600, up $1.150,
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