Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) lean hog futures rose on Thursday, joining strength in the grain markets after US President Donald Trump temporarily exempted goods from Mexico from steep tariffs that he had imposed this week, reported Reuters.
Mexico is the largest buyer of several US agricultural products including pork, corn and wheat, and the tariff threats raised fears of export disruptions, pressuring hog futures earlier this week. Thursday's exemption helped lift values.
The benchmark CME April hog contract settled up 1.950 cents at 86.650 cents per pound. June hog futures ended up 2.450 cents at 97.025 cents.
On social media platform Truth Social, Trump initially only mentioned a tariff exemption for Mexico, expiring on April 2, but the amendment he signed into his order covers Canada as well. The three countries are partners in the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade that Trump negotiated in his first term as president.
Cattle futures, however, ticked lower as cooling trade tensions signalled that Mexico would continue to supply feeder cattle to US ranchers.
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