Lean hog futures saw a triple digit rally on Black Friday, futures finished as much as $1.35 higher, pushing the weekly change to +80 cents. The USDA weekly export sales data for the week ending 11/21 showed 50,465 MT sold. That pushes the total commits to 1.674 MMT, which is 43.7% ahead of last year’s pace. With 6 weeks still left in the year to add to the accumulated net sales, pork commitments are already the highest they’ve ever been for a single year. The accumulated shipments according to the report are now at 1.415 MMT which is also a record. China was the destination for 3,366 MT of the sales. Of the shipments, 15,078 MT were headed to China, with an accumulated 290,919 MT on the year. The 11/26 CME Lean Hog Index was $58.60 after a 72 cent bump. The USDA pork carcass cutout value was higher on Friday morning, with a $1.97 gain up to $81.17. Primal cuts were mixed, with the biggest moves coming off of picnic (+6.78) and ribs (-8.03). USDA’s national average base hog price for 11/29 was $42.54, for a 35 cent drop. USDA estimates FI hog slaughter for the shortened week to be 2.343 million head through Saturday, which brings the YTD estimation to 117.880 million head.

---provided by Brugler Marketing & Management