7/11/14 was up $0.39 and the model projects that the CME Index component on the 7/11/14 will be up between +0.35 and +0.65. With the premium of the HEN4 having closed to 0.08, it appears to me that there is a good chance that the firmness of the CME Index component on Friday's kill will be sufficient to begin nudging the NNNs upward a little.

Packers firmer bids on Friday enabled them to purchase only an "Average" number of hogs.

On Friday the 6-day moving average carcass weight eased to 213.42# and that brought the yr/yr increase down to 9.20#. Warm weather is undoubtedly beginning to have a slowing effect on hog growth but the numbers are definitely lower than one-year ago. Last weeks kill was down 8.96% last week from the same week last year.

The USDA reported that packers were paying other packers 133.80 for hog carcasses. I may be wrong, but I think this may indicate that packers are still searching for hogs and packers may continue bidding higher today and tomorrow as we move toward cash settlement.

I'm going to hold the long NNNs and will buy more if we get much of a dip. The offers I am seeing on my screen suggests there will not be much of a dip this morning.

Best wishes,

dhm