
Fresh off of contract highs on Monday, Friday’s triple digit loss left the December contract with a $6.50 loss for the week Fri-Fri. The other front months also settled down by triple digits on the day, taking the board to early July levels. The USDA’s National Average Base Hog price was another $6.29 weaker to $117.80. The CME Lean Hog Index from 8/17 was another 2 cents weaker to $120.60.
Weekly CoT data had managed money at 71,957 contracts net long in lean hog futures and options as of 8/16. That was a 6,804 contract boost wk/wk to a 25-week high driven by net new buying.
Front month pork cutout futures went into the weekend with a 55 cent gain for October, but $0.87 to $1.45 losses in the other nearbys. USDA’s National Pork Carcass Cutout value for Friday afternoon was $2.76 weaker to $117.15. USDA estimates the FI hog slaughter for the week through Saturday at 2.395m head. That is up 70k head wk/wk but down 37k head from the same week last year. USDA has the YTD slaughter total 3.5% behind last year’s pace with 78.246m head harvested.
Oct 22 Hogs closed at $93.125, down $0.175,
Dec 22 Hogs closed at $84.150, down $1.025
Oct 22 Pork Cutout closed at $104.100, up $0.400,