Lean hog futures settled the Thursday session with contracts mixed, as nearby May was up 7 cents and other contracts down 20 to 25 cents. Preliminary open interest was up 1,507 contracts. USDA’s national average base hog negotiated price was down 56 cents from the day prior at $90.22 on Thursday afternoon. The CME Lean Hog Index was up another 67 cents from the previous day at $86.75 on April 22. 

Thursday morning’s Export Sales report showed just 5,848 MT in pork sales in the week ending on April 24. That was a calendar year low and the lowest for any week since 2020. Japan was the buyer of 6,300 MT, with Mexico buying 3,800 MT and China canceling 12,000 MT. Pork shipments were tallied at 27,129 MT, the second lowest for the year.  Of that total, 10,200 MT was to Mexico, with 4,700 MT to South Korea and 4,600 MT to Japan. 

USDA’s Thursday afternoon pork cutout value was $1.78 higher at $95.86. The belly primal was the only reported lower, with the loin up $4.70. Thursday’s federally inspected hog slaughter from USDA was estimated at 475,000 head, with the week to date total at 1.788 million head. That was down 149,000 head from last week and 148,232 head below the same week last year.

May 25 Hogs  closed at $91.950, up $0.075,

Jun 25 Hogs  closed at $99.925, down $0.225

Jul 25 Hogs  closed at $100.050, down $0.250,