Lean hog futures slipped lower into the Wednesday close, with contracts 15 to 67 cents lower, as October was up 60 points. Open interest was up 2,122 contracts across the board. USDA’s national base hog price was $79.65 in the Wednesday PM report, down 25 cents from the day prior. The CME Lean Hog Index was down another 50 cents on September 21 at $82.92.
USDA will release their quarterly Hogs & Pigs report this afternoon, with traders looking for September 1 inventory of all hogs to be down 0.8% from a year ago. The June to August pig crop is seen down 1%. Farrowings during that period are estimated to be down 1.7%, with intentions for September to November down 0.8%.
USDA’s pork carcass cutout value was back down $1.17 in the Wednesday afternoon report, at $86.82. All primals were reported lower. Federally inspected hog slaughter for Wednesday was estimated at 486,000 head, with the weekly total at 1.433 million head. That was 25,000 head below last week on a revision to Tuesday, and 16,080 head shy of the same week last year.
Oct 26 Hogs closed at $79.875, up $0.600,
Dec 26 Hogs closed at $70.325, down $0.675
Feb 27 Hogs closed at $72.025, down $0.525,
