Lean hog futures are trading with losses of 65 cents to $1.60 in the nearbys on Thursday. The USDA national average base hog negotiated price was up 95 cents at $88.49 in the Thursday AM report. The CME Lean Hog Index for March 25 was up 23 cents from the previous day at $89.13.

Pork export business was tallied at 31,947 MT in the week ending on March 20, a 3-week high. Mexico was the top buyer of 14,400 MT, with 3,700 MT sold to Columbia. Shipments were reported at a 5-week high of 31,639 MT. Of that total, 11,900 MT was headed to Mexico, with 4,100 MT each to South Korea and Japan.

Hogs & Pigs data will be released this afternoon, with traders surveyed by Reuters looking for all inventory as of March 1 at 75.587 million head, up 1.2% from last year. That is widely expected to be via the marketing number, seen up 1.1% to 69.431 million head, with breeding hogs up 0.2% at 6.028 million head.

Thursday morning’s FOB plant pork cutout from USDA was down 14 cents at $95.51 per cwt. The butt, picnic and belly were all reported lower. USDA estimated Wednesday’s Federally inspected hog slaughter at 487,000 head, taking the weekly total to 1.45 million head. That is up 117,000 head from last week after and 236 head below the same week last year. 

Apr 25 Hogs  are at $86.900, down $0.650,

May 25 Hogs  are at $88.250, down $1.275

Jun 25 Hogs  is at $94.950, down $1.600,