Pork Bellies Down Limit

Frozen pork belly futures fell sharply for the second straight session Wednesday on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, as the hog slaughter continued to run ahead of the year-earlier level. Bellies fell 2 cents a pound, the daily maximum allowed by the exchange, in most delivery months. Analysts said the selling pressure also affected live hogs and cattle.

Cattle prices, although steady on cash markets, fell late in the session after the pork complex collapsed.

Corn and soybean futures prices were mostly higher and wheat was mixed in dull trading on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Crude oil and heating oil futures prices were sharply lower on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The main factor pressuring prices was a report released Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute that showed domestic inventories of crude oil and heating oil increased in the week ended January 11, said Nauman Barakat, an analyst in New York with Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co.

The weakness of oil prices and the failure of foreign currency values to maintain early strength against the U.S. dollar kept precious metals prices from advancing on the New York Commodity Exchange, analysts said. But they added that speculators and investors appear to be buying gold at around $300 an ounce because they don’t expect prices to fall below that level.