4/21/17 was down 0.60 to 60.25. The KKKs settled premium to the component by 4.15 and the MMMs were premium by +9.28. I looked carefully at the data to see if I could see a silver lining to the dark cloud hanging over hog prices but I found none.

The 6-day moving average carcass weight has moved up to 214.22#. That is unchanged from one-year ago. It might be that producers are not as current in their shipments as they were before the holiday weekend. Packer hogs are once again getting heavier than the non-packer hogs now by 2.43#. Both packer and non-packer hogs were heavier but the packer hogs were up quite a bit more than the non-packer hogs. Index hogs were also heavier at 214.23#. This is significant because these are the ones that will depress the index if they get shipped in larger numbers.

With the U.S.D.A. reporting cutouts down almost a buck today, there seems to be little pressure from consumers to drive packers out chasing hogs. The afternoon reports are pointing to the index making another leg down tomorrow when the data on today's kill comes out. Additionally it appears that packers made a large purchase today with their lower bid prices.

I'm just not seeing a fundamental justification for the KKKs being up today. Nowhere is it written, though, that hogs need a "Fundamental Justification" to make a move in either direction!

Best wishes,

dhm