Just noticed hog futures had a solid push higher on Wednesday. The front month contracts closed up around 45 cents, and the USDA reported the national base hog price at $85.13, which is a pretty nice jump of almost $5 from Tuesday. Interesting thing is the CME Lean Hog Index ticked up another 27 cents to $82.03 on Jan 19, so there's some real momentum building here.

Pork cutout values also moved higher by 51 cents to $93.98 per cwt, though the butt and picnic primals came in lower. Wednesday's federally inspected hog slaughter hit 495,000 head, bringing the weekly total to 1.404 million after they revised Tuesday down by 4,000. That's about 77,000 head below the previous week but still running ahead of last year's pace by over 64,000.

The contract closes looked solid too - Feb hogs at $87.85, April hogs up to $95.60, and May hogs pushing toward $99.28. This hog market seems to have some legs. Curious to see if this momentum holds or if we get some profit-taking soon.