Pork Futures: Hogs Mainly Down
CHICAGO - Chicago Mercantile Exchange lean hogs primarily settled weaker Monday on generally lower cash hog prices, spreads and Chicago Board of Trade corn's downturn.Pork bellies finished mixed, live cattle settled flat to mostly firm and feeder cattle ended higher.
Lean hog contracts slipped at the start on buyer caution and Missouri direct hog's $1 per hundredweight drop. Also, February's movement was tethered to speculation about where the contract and CME's hog index would meet when spot-February expires Feb. 14.
Nearby-April initially stumbled because of the contract's hefty premium to CME's hog index. However, April later rallied, spurred by short covering and spreading out of February and June.
Meanwhile, prospective longs kept their distance from deep-hog months because of depressed CBOT corn futures.
Cash hog prices came in mixed to mostly lower as the morning progressed, which weighed on spot-February. Country hog buyers foresee mixed cash hog bids for Tuesday.