Futures Market News
Hog futures impacted by snow, disease
Feb 08, 2011 12:03 PM
Heavy snowstorms in the Midwestern U.S. pushed up hog futures since animal shipments were delayed, Bloomberg reports.
Iowa, the U.S. state that produces the most hogs, took on as much as 16 inches of snow last week, according to the National Weather Service. During that week, meatpackers processed 5.6 less hogs than the week prior.
"We're fighting the remnants of a major snowstorm, and we're looking at some very cold temperatures starting tomorrow," Lawrence Kane, a market adviser at Stewart-Peterson Group in Illinois, told the news service. "The cold temperatures will create additional challenges to moving livestock."
Just before 1 p.m., hog futures were down 0.52 percent, a 0.475 cent reduction to $91.35 per pound. During the past year, hog futures have increased 38 percent.
The National Weather Service reports Iowa wind chill could plunge as low as minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday in selected regions of Iowa.
Industry analysts are eyeing an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in South Korea as one significant factor that might benefit the U.S. industry. As part of an effort to contain the virus, the Pacific nation culled in excess of three million animals, or 23 percent of its pigs and cattle herds.
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