Forward hog contract prices opened the week mixed.
Tyler Fulton is the Director of Risk Management with Hams Marketing Services.
"They are maintaining a very volatile trend...We're seeing a lot of political influence from the recent meetings with the President of the United States and the President of China...and then in addition to that the signing of the USMCA as well as the maintenance of the steel and aluminum tariffs along with the retaliatory tariffs [from Mexico]."
Fulton says U.S. cash markets traded in a steady trend last week with both negotiated and formula-based hog prices holding firm.
He adds U.S. lean hog futures initially reacted positively to the news as it appears that China has already started to purchase U.S. pork in volumes not seen since before the trade war started in March.
China and the U.S. agreed to ‘pause’ their trade war with Trump committing to hold tariffs on Chinese products at 10% for the next 90 days while China’s President Xi agreed to immediately start buying a substantial amount of US products to alleviate the trade imbalance.
Source : Steinbachonline