Pork Futures: Hogs Gain
CHICAGO - Chicago Mercantile Exchange hogs posted gains Tuesday on short covering, front-months' oversold chart conditions and forward spreading.Live cattle gained as well and feeder cattle closed moderately higher. Most pork belly contracts settled lower.
Lean hogs vacillated throughout the morning as speculative bargain hunters flocked to spot-April after it made a new contract low on Monday. On the hand, traders at times sold into April upswings because of depressed cash hog prices.
Also, neary-June sometimes moved on either side of the board due to its significantly bearish premium to CME's hog index. And, nearby-June periodically bore the brunt of spreading out of the contract into the spot month.
By the same token, June's oversold Relative Strength Index condition lured bullish traders. And, short covering and feelings that June's collapse on Monday was unwarranted laid a floor beneath the nearby contract.
Meanwhile, deferred-month hogs initially bowed to Chicago Board of Trade corn futures that traded lower throughout the session. However, rear hog contracts inched upward as CBOT corn futures lifted from session bottoms.