Commodities : Thursday, Nov. 20, 1986 : Livestock, Meat Futures Up

Livestock and meat futures prices advanced Thursday, with pork bellies posting sharp gains on fears of short supplies developing in the coming weeks.

Bellies rose as much as 1.95 cents before retreating a bit.

On some other markets, energy futures were lower, gold and platinum were higher, while silver retreated.

Pork bellies were sharply higher for the third consecutive session.

“Bellies made a real impressive showing,” said Philip Stanley, an analyst with Thomson McKinnon Securities, adding that this was mostly for technical reasons.

“But there’s also a growing concern of tight belly stocks in storage,” he said.

Cattle futures posted new contract highs, reflecting a relatively firm cash undertone, Stanley said. Also, with the first notice day for December cattle coming up next week and with futures discounted to cash “some shorts (traders on the sell side) are being scared out of the market,” he said.