Pork Futures: Most Hogs Slide
CHICAGO - Chicago Mercantile Exchange hogs finished mostly lower on fund selling, sell stops and the roll by October longs into December on day three of the five-day Goldman Roll, while pork bellies finished firm.
13 September 2007
2 minute read
Meanwhile, live cattle posted sizable losses, while feeders fell sharply.
The roll is tied to the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index.
After opening weak on follow-through selling, lean hogs spiked on short covering, but later acquiesced to fund liquidation. Futures lost further ground after October and December were unable to punch through 10-day moving average chart barriers, and December lost 20-day moving average support.
Nonetheless, hog break-buyers were inspired by pockets of cash firmness,Tuesday's pork cutout rise and spot-October's oversold chart condition. What's more, speculative shoppers were attracted to far-month hog contracts because of an abrupt surge in Chicago Board of Trade corn futures prices.
On the other hand, bears' aggressive selling was in part motivated by unrelenting hog kills and increased Iowa/Southern Minnesota swine weights.
Country hog buyers and CME hog-market bulls anticipate generally steady cash hog prices for Thursday as processors book hogs for the upcoming weekend.However, bearish market participants argue that packers have supply needs met enough to possibly lean on cash prices into early next week.
