Hog futures fall for third time
Monday, 22 March 2010
NEW YORK, March 21 (Bloomberg): Hog futures fell for the third time this week on speculation that meatpacker demand in the US is shrinking as wholesale-pork prices slump. Cattle also dropped.
Wholesale pork sank 2.7 per cent yesterday to 72.68 cents a pound, a three-week low, US Department of Agriculture data show. Hogs for immediate delivery to slaughterhouses dropped 6.4 per cent since March 8 to 68.23 cents a pound yesterday. Retailers already may have filled pork orders before the April 4 Easter holiday, when hams are a traditional meal in the US
"The cash end of the hog market is in pretty ragged shape," said Dick Quiter, a broker at McFarland Commodities LLC in Chicago. Meatpackers may be "pretty well covered on cash hogs for next week, if they can't put a floor in the product market."
Hog futures for June settlement declined 0.35 cent, or 0.4 per cent, to 82.575 cents a pound on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The most-active contract was up 2.2 per cent for the week, the sixth straight increase and the longest rally in more than a decade.
Wholesale pork sank 2.7 per cent yesterday to 72.68 cents a pound, a three-week low, US Department of Agriculture data show. Hogs for immediate delivery to slaughterhouses dropped 6.4 per cent since March 8 to 68.23 cents a pound yesterday. Retailers already may have filled pork orders before the April 4 Easter holiday, when hams are a traditional meal in the US
"The cash end of the hog market is in pretty ragged shape," said Dick Quiter, a broker at McFarland Commodities LLC in Chicago. Meatpackers may be "pretty well covered on cash hogs for next week, if they can't put a floor in the product market."
Hog futures for June settlement declined 0.35 cent, or 0.4 per cent, to 82.575 cents a pound on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The most-active contract was up 2.2 per cent for the week, the sixth straight increase and the longest rally in more than a decade.