Pork Futures: Hogs Mixed
CHICAGO - CME lean hogs ended mixed on profit taking after Monday's run up, lower cash hog quotes and April/June bear spreads.Pork futures opened flat to mostly higher on spillover buying and oversold spot-April and nearby-June technical conditions. Recent modest pork cutout gains and satisfactory calculated packer profit margins perpetuated ideas that packers may put a bottom beneath cash prices soon driven by post-Easter holiday meat advertisements.
Meanwhile, a small band of speculative longs dabbled in deferred hog contracts despite electronic-CBOT corn's continued fall. Far-month hog options later gained more ground after CBOT corn prices broke into positive trading territory.
Nevertheless, front-month hog buying abated when spot-April approached 10-day moving average resistance and cash hog bids adopted a bearish tone as the morning wore on. What's more, April and June's bearish premiums' to the exchange's two-day hog barometer triggered selling into up ticks.
Eventually, October and December hogs wilted amid speculative selling. However, February and April 2009 hog month options remained above board due to supportive CBOT corn.