After a sharply higher start to the day on Tuesday, the hog market turned down and gave back much of Monday’s gains. May and June took the brunt of Tuesday’s selling, and at the close June was back under it’s 200 day moving average. The cash index was down $.40 at $67.69 and projected another $.17 lower for Wednesday.
The National Weekly Pork Report on Monday showed that pork packers sold close to 25 Mil Lbs of pork for export, a slight increase from the previous week, but still just below the average weekly totals for 2018. However, cumulative sales for the year are still 18% higher than a year ago. The largest volume of business, has been in pork trimmings, but pork loin sales are a close second with cumulative at 44 Mil Lbs or a 75% increase over last year. Despite the better export sales, loin prices this week are trading 7% under a year ago.
In the near term, the cash market is likely nearing a seasonal low. However, we expect that a summer rally will be limited to the mid-$80’s.
