April Hogs Gap to Fresh Contract Low

April lean hog futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Thursday gapped lower on the daily bar chart and hit a fresh contract low of 59.85 cents a pound. Prices remain in a strong 6.5-month-old downtrend on the daily bar chart and there are no early technical clues to suggest a market low is close at hand. The next downside price objective for the powerful hog market bears is to push and close prices below strong longer-term technical support at the 58.00-cent area. For the bulls to begin to regain some upside near-term technical traction, they will first have to push and close prices above strong technical resistance at the last "reaction high" of 63.15 cents a pound.