Hogs Post Strength to Close the Week
Lean hog futures settled the Friday session with contract sup 17 to 97 cents, as Feb was up 42 cents on the week. The national average base hog negotiated price was reported at $80.13 on Friday afternoon, down $5.21 from the day prior, though volume was light. The CME Lean Hog Index was reported at $83.93 on December 4, down 14 cents the previous day.
The large managed money spec traders in lean hog futures and options added 8,746 contracts to extend their record net long as of 12/3. They took the record exposure to 133,507 contracts by Tuesday.
Year to date pork shipments have totaled 1.536 MT according to Export Sales data, which is up 6% from a year ago at the same time. Adding in unshipped sales for the total commitments show 1.706 MMT, which is 1.4% larger than last year.
USDA’s FOB plant pork cutout value reported higher on Friday PM, up $2.52 at $91.16 per cwt. Just the rib was reported lower, with the belly the driver to the upside, $6.38 higher. USDA estimated the weekly FI hog slaughter at 2.602 million head. That was down 65,752 head from the same week last year on a lower Saturday kill.
Dec 24 Hogs closed at $83.300, up $0.875,
Feb 25 Hogs closed at $87.325, up $0.975
Apr 25 Hogs closed at $91.850, up $0.700,
On the date of publication, Austin Schroeder did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.