Pork Futures: Hogs Slide
CHICAGO - CME lean hogs ended lower on bearish fundamentals, fund sales and April/June bear spreads.Lean hog futures wilted at the start on Tuesday's pork cutout drop and electronic CBOT corn's overnight retreat that deterred prospective back-month hog buyers. Front hog contracts' bearish premiums' to the CME hog index contributed to early declines.
Also, steady to lower cash hog returns further weighed on spot April. On the other hand, initial spreading out of June and July into April exerted added rear hog month pressure but cushioned April's fall.
Furthermore, several traders blamed losses in other commodity sectors as a possible reason for lean hogs' bearish mood.
Some on the hog side of the aisle either traded less aggressively or were content to watch the day's proceedings from a distance knowing that USDA's cold storage report is waiting in the wings. The data is slated for release on Thursday at 3 p.m. EDT.
Analysts' average projection for belly stocks for February is 80.1 million pounds based a range from 78.877 million to 83.0 million pounds. Ham forecasts were 92.8 million to 96.0 million pounds. And, total pork inventory for last month was estimated around 582.3 million pounds.