On Thursday, lean hog futures rose by $0.77 to $1.30 per cwt, following gains of $0.50 to $1.30 on Wednesday. The USDA’s national base hog price recorded a weighted average of $109.60, down $2.21 from the previous day, while the CME Lean Hog Index increased slightly to $107.20 as of July 15. Open interest fell by 4,490 contracts on Wednesday, indicating that recent buying was primarily short covering.
The USDA reported a FOB plant pork cutout value of $114.82 per cwt, a $1.32 increase. Pork belly quotes rose by $3.01 per cwt, and estimated hog slaughter for Wednesday was 477,000 head, bringing the weekly total to 1.408 million head, which is 10,000 head lower than last week and 26,663 head lower compared to the same week last year.
Weekly pork export sales were reported at 17,100 metric tons for the week ending July 10, a decline of about 30% from the previous week, with Mexico and Japan as leading buyers. Export shipments totaled 26,500 metric tons, primarily going to Mexico and China.
