4/29/16 was up +0.73 to 71.46. The bullish euphoria is running rampant in the hog pits and traders have ballooned the "Gap" up to 11.09 with the MMMs premium to the component. There was some underlying fundamental support from this with the cutouts being firm yesterday.

The six-day moving average carcass weight moved up to 214.43# which is +0.64# year/year. Packer hogs were a bit lighter and non-packers hogs tacked on a few ounces. Index hogs were also heavier but still below the rest of the hogs at 212.89#.

The KKKs are not showing quite the "Gap" of the MMMs. But still not insignficant at +6.94. The "Gaps" are wider than the average gains the Index tacks on this time of the year.

Maybe this is not going to be an average year!

Sometimes when there is a large "Gap" like we have this year, something will spook the market and we get a limit move that creates a lot of "Gap" closure. I'm not predicting that it will happen this year but it might. I'm not inclined to climb onto the bullish bandwagon but will be mostly content putting spread on and off my boat. This morning I have piled nine on and taken six off. I bought six K/M spreads and still have all six of them plus a few carried over from the weekend.

If that spread drops below -8.0 like it does periodically, my bigger boat may be in bigger trouble.

You don't suppose that market would do that to an old man who is just trying to get by do you?

Best wishes,

dhm