Cattle Up, Pork Prices Mixed

Cattle futures prices were mostly lower while live hogs and frozen pork bellies were mixed Monday on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

The price of frozen pork bellies for delivery next year advanced by the daily limit of 2 cents a pound, while those for delivery the remainder of this year were lower. Analysts said a report released Friday by the Agriculture Department affected trading.

The report disclosed that supplies are adequate for current consumption but tightness is expected to develop in a seasonal period of high demand this summer.

Hog prices followed a similar trend, also in response to a report that showed an unwillingness among farmers to expand production, said Robert Saathoff, vice president for commodity research in New York with Prudential-Bache Securities.

“You don’t see that very often but when you do, you can blame it on a report,” Saathoff said.