6/13/16 was up 0.43 to 81.33. That represents one-half of the cash settlement index. With the MMMs trading at 81.70, it will take a component on today's kill of 0.90 to bump the index up to the 81.70. Surely packers can loosen up their wallets and make that happen, but will they? We did not see a gain that large last week and packers made a decent purchase yesterday at 103.0% of the moving average daily purchases. That suggests to me that producers are fairly willing sellers and that may enable packers to hold the line just a little on their bids. I'm going to stay short the MMMs and ride into cash settlement.

The six-day moving average carcass weight dropped to 212.56#. That is -0.42# Yr/Yr. Packers have really been running their hogs to market. Packer hogs are now only +0.62# heavier than non-packer hogs. Index hogs are lightest of all at 211.09#. Perhaps hot weather is now slowing the growth of hogs a little. That often happens this time of the year.

Best wishes,

dhm