firmed to 213.61# and all of the gain came from heavier packer hogs. Carcasses are now +10.60# yr/yr. The number of packer hogs killed was near steady at 32%.

I have been thinking that packers may have suffered mildly greater PED virus losses. The heavier weights today may indicate that packers have had empty pens and retained hogs to add poundage with cheaper feed.

The swine scheduled for delivery report shows that packers have 75K fewer hogs scheduled than they had on this date last week and on a year-over-year basis they are down 69K or 3.1%. That's in close harmony with the numbers from the last H&P report.

The table below shows that on average the CME Index tends to be quite stable from now until the QQQs expire. This is definitely NOT an "Average" year because of the PED problem so the stage is set for some real fireworks this year.

Best wishes,

dhm