Tip toeing through the mine field heres what we see early today. Volume yesterday was 56,600 with open interest up 1,200. Cash is sluggish this week, expected sluggish again today mostly due to the sheer numbers coming down the pipe. Weekly pork exports were decent but they dont compare with last weeks horribly bloated number. Total sales were 19,200 MT with Mexico your largest buyer, purchasing 5,000 MT followed by Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong. Canada, Chile and China each purchased 1,300 MT. Shipments were excellent which is the most important aspect given the huge weekly kills that the industry is currently enduring. Ignoring last weeks crazy report and this weeks shipments are the largest of the year at 32,000 MT. Mexico took 9,600 MT followed by China which received 9,200 MT. Japan took 4,100 followed by South Korea (3,300) followed by Canada which took 2,000 MT. Finally, in the headline news China has stipulated theyll purchase $20 billion of U.S. agricultural goods in the first year of a phase one agreement if penned in November. In the last normal year of relations, 2017, China purchased $19.7 billion worth of goods dominated by soybeans (63%). Pork only comprised 3% in 2017. IMO you can likely reverse the two if phase one is signed. In other words, pork is likely to dominate the purchases. If Im correct $12 billion of pork purchases over the next year is big news for hog futures. Who knows if futures will trade this information? Finally, reports out of China suggest theyll be aggressive in securing pork for the upcoming holidays. I remain bullish and positioned accordingly.

DH, we are like Dennis - bullish but scratching our heads wondering when we are going to be in sync with the market again!

Dewey