Monday Hogs Follow Last Weeks’s Drop

Last week the hog market continued the drop following Dec’s new contract high on 8/16. On Friday the lean hog futures complex bounced into the weekend with 17 to 55 cent gains. The October contract was left out, and ended the day on a 45 cent loss. The USDA National Average Base Hog price from Friday afternoon was down by $7.37 to $110.25. Thursday fell $7.88 to $117.62. The CME Lean Hog Index was down another $1.95 on 8/24 to $116.05.  

The weekly CFTC Commitment of Traders report showed long liquidation from the lean hog spec traders. The reduced OI dropped their net long by 7,150 contracts to 64,807 as of 8/23. 

Pork cutout futures closed the last trade day of the week with 5 to 20 cent gains past the October contract’s 57 cent loss. USDA’s National Pork Carcass Cutout value for Friday afternoon was $102.23, down by another 43 cents. The week’s FI hog slaughter was estimated at 2.393m head through Saturday. That is 2k head below last week, and finished the week 38k head below the same week last year on a lighter Saturday kill. 

Oct 22 Hogs  closed at $90.650, down $0.450,

Dec 22 Hogs  closed at $82.950, up $0.325

Oct 22 Pork Cutout  closed at $101.350, down $0.475,