Pork Futures: Most Hogs Gain

CHICAGO - Chicago Mercantile Exchange lean hogs settled mostly firm Thursday on weather concerns, spreaders who bought April and sold February, and end-of-month position squaring.
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Pork bellies again posted gains, live cattle settled flat to weak and feeder cattle finished steady to up slightly.

Pork futures slumped after the open as longs claimed profits following recent rallies. Also, potential buyers clung to the outskirts of the pit because of February and April's bearish premiums' to CME's hog index. And, front-months' overbought Relative Strength Index situations dampened buyer enthusiasm.

What's more, Chicago Board of Trade corn's initial losses, and deferred-hog futures' run ups to new contract highs on Wednesday spawned early deep-month hog liquidation.

However, supportive fundamentals and an approaching winter storm into the central part of the country emboldened scale-down spot February buyers. Subsequent spot-month upward momentum returned February above the 40-day moving average where it had traded beneath earlier.

A rash of nearby-April short covering and April/June forward spreads lifted the nearby contract to within striking distance of the 100-day moving average, where it later retreated.

Source: FXstreet.com
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