Commodities : Thursday, Aug. 27, 1987 : Pork Futures Prices Retreat

Pork futures prices retreated Thursday, with pork bellies falling the limit allowed for daily trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Cattle futures were mixed. On other markets, precious metals declined; grain and soybeans were mostly a little higher; and most energy futures advanced.

“Pork bellies made new lows for the month, and when this happened, there was absolutely no technical support, and they closed the limit down,” said Charlie Richardson, an analyst in Denver with Lind-Waldock.

Hog prices, which were lower early in the day on some profit taking, went into a steeper decline as pork bellies fell.

Cattle futures held up fairly well, although the two nearby contracts closed slightly lower under profit-taking, said Richardson.

The market has been supported all week by a finding of pesticides in Australian beef shipped to the United States. The seriousness of the finding is still at issue, but it had the market trying to guess whether a widespread ban on Australian beef would mean Canada and Japan would switch to buying U.S. meat.