March 30, 2010
CME lean hog bulls right back in business
June lean hog futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) on Monday (March 29) opened and immediately locked up the daily trading limit of 3.00 cents a pound.
A surprisingly bullish USDA quarterly hogs and pigs report released late last week is the fundamental reason for the limit price move Monday.
Technically, Monday's locked-limit price move quickly repaired much of last week's serious chart damage that saw June hogs hit a fresh six-week low of 77.80 cents. Monday's price action put back in place a two-month-old uptrend line drawn from the February and March lows.
The next upside price objective for the hog market bulls is to produce a close above the contract high of 83.50, scored on March 22. Below that level is chart resistance for June futures at 82.00, 82.50 and at 83.00 cents.
The hog market bears would regain some downside technical momentum by pushing and closing June futures prices below what is now solid technical support at 80.00 cents a pound.
