Triple Digit Bounce in Hogs

Front month lean hog futures went into the weekend with $1.60 to $3.10 gains. For the July contract, that limited the week’s loss to just 8 cents. USDA’s National Average Base Hog price for Friday afternoon was $120.23 after a $0.59 drop. The ECB price was withheld for confidentiality while WCB was quoted at $124.24. The CME Lean Hog Index was $110.74 on 6/21, up by 29 cents.  

Lean hog spec traders were 28,814 contracts net long as of 6/21 according to the CFTC. That was a 9,982 contract stronger net position wk/wk, mainly driven by short covering. 

USDA’s weekly Export Sales report showed 25,386 MT of pork was sold during the week that ended 6/16. FAS data marked that as 10% below the 4-week average. Mexico was the top buyer with 15.2k MT booked. Pork shipments were 28,853 MT during the week, bringing the YTD total to 711,154 MT. That trails last year’s record by 24%.  

Pork cutout futures went into the weekend $1 to $2.67 higher. USDA’s National Pork Carcass Cutout Value for Friday afternoon was $2.43 higher to $112.20. USDA has the FI hog slaughter estimated at 2.304m head for the week through Saturday. That is down 68k head from the week prior and 50k head below the same week last year. 

Jul 22 Hogs  closed at $110.925, up $2.375,

Aug 22 Hogs  closed at $106.775, up $3.100

Jul 22 Pork Cutout  closed at $111.850, up $1.000,