Front month lean hog futures closed the midweek session with gains of 27 cents to $1.15. August hogs closed 25 cents in the red ahead of next Friday’s expiration. The CME Lean Hog index was $52.81, down by another 30 cents on Aug 3. Due to technical issues, USDA’s National Average Base Hog price for Wednesday afternoon was not reported. The AM quote was a dime lower at $38.65. Census data shows June pork exports were 515 million lbs. That was a 9 month low, but still a record for June. Coronavirus issues limited product availability. Each of the last 13 months has been a respective monthly record for Official pork exports. USDA’s National Pork Carcass Cutout value was not reported yesterday. In the AM, the cutout value was $3.21 higher to $68.71. FI hog slaughter for the week through Wednesday was estimated at 1.354 million head. That is down 53,000 head from last week and 21k below the same week last year.

--- provided by Brugler Marketing & Management