Pork Futures: Hogs Seen Mostly Weak
CHICAGO - Analysts and brokers anticipate a mostly weak CME hog open on possible spillover selling, front-month premiums' to CME's hog index and mildly bearish fundamentals.Pork cutout's continued decline Wednesday and mostly steady to weak cash calls for Thursday are negative market influences, a broker said. Also, slipping calculated packer profit margins and front-month chart resistance may at first deter spot-April and nearby-June buyers, he said.
April hog's 58.26-cent and June's 74.62-cent 10-day moving averages are points of resistance.
Also, funds could shuffle some of their spot-April positions into June in earnest on the final day of the Goldman roll, a trader said. He said the move could pressure April but ease potential June losses.
An analyst called pork bellies mixed on spillover selling and Wednesday's $3 per hundredweight fresh belly drop to $69 against possible speculative hedging and May's oversold chart condition.
March pork bellies are slated for expiration March 26. There were no deliveries posted by the CME against the contract late Wednesday.