Hog futures were lower at the open on Thursday and stayed down at the close. Intraday resistance was against unchanged and then fell alongside a host of other US commodity markets. The cash index continued its lower trajectory and was down $.36 at $55.55. We estimate another $.31 lower for Friday. This puts weekly cash losses at $1.65/cwt.
The USDA is slowly catching up on livestock reporting and releasing some weekly data as it becomes available. There was an Actual Slaughter report released on Tuesday with data for the week ending Jan 12th. The report showed an average barrow/gilt carcass weight of 214 Lbs, 2 Lbs heavier than a year ago, the most for early January since the reporting began back in 1986. Those heavy weights along large weekly kill figures are keeping the US pork market very well (over) supplied.
Next support for April is just below the market at $57 and then $54. June hogs look to go back and close Tuesday’s open chart gap.
