Commodities : Thursday, Nov. 21, 1985 : Pork Bellies Advance Limit

Good demand for bacon helped the pork belly futures market sizzle for the second straight session Thursday on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Pork bellies for delivery in February advanced by the daily limit of 2 cents a pound. Phil Stanley, a livestock analyst in Chicago with Thomson McKinnon Securities, said pork bellies advanced amid strong demand from bacon slicers that supply grocers. Bacon is the end product of pork bellies. Cattle futures reacted to higher wholesale prices for beef carcasses and for live animals in the Texas Panhandle and in Nebraska, Stanley said.

“It appears likely that the cash cattle market will stay strong over the near term,” he said.

He added that some of the buying appeared to be coming from traders who were closing out positions prior to the release Friday of the Agriculture Department’s cattle-on-feed report, which is expected to disclose a sharp reduction in the number of cattle placed on feed lots in October.

Hog prices also rallied, as sales on country markets lightened up, and demand from meatpackers remained strong, Stanley said.