Morning Hog Market Report

June hogs fell sharply lower during Friday's session and finished the week with a loss of nearly 1.0%. Weaker cash markets and weakness in pork cut-out values and cash bellies on Thursday night were thought to have pressured the market. In addition, many traders are concerned with the sluggish demand pace from packers and higher than normal weights, and that slower exports, higher weights and slow movement through the pipeline will keep cash markets sloppy. The CME Lean Hog Index as of April 25th came in at 82.82, up 13 cents from the previous session and up from 82.65 the week before. The estimated hog slaughter came in at 404,000 head Friday and 37,000 head for Saturday. This brought the total for last week to 2.092 million head, up from 2.084 million head the previous week and up from 1.955 million head a year ago. Pork cutout values released after the close Friday came in at $76.89, up 14 cents from Thursday but down from $78.09 the previous week.