9/3/19 was down -0.60 and the model projects the component on today's kill will drop between -0.70 and -1.00. Packers did a great job selling pork today - the primal cuts jumped 2.29. The combination of lower pork prices as indicated by the falling CME Lean Hog Index and the higher cutouts pushed the packers gross margins on Index hogs up to $15.04/hog. That is probably not enough to send packers into La La Land and throwing money at hogs like crazy but it might slow the rate at which they hack-away at their bid prices.

With their lower bids, packers were able to purchase 99.6% of the moving daily average purchases of total hogs and 97.6% on the index hogs.

It looks like limit will be expanded to 4.50 tomorrow. Another limit up move tomorrow may suggest that the tariff is not keeping China from importing American pork.

Best wishes,

Doc