Chicago Mercantile Exchange hog futures firmed slightly on Tuesday after falling their daily trading limit in the previous session.
Traders said the market had run out of steam after rallying to their highest since June 2014 last week.
“There no doubt remains questions about the belly’s staying power at these levels and what’s expected to be a slowdown in retail featuring of that product,” brokerage StoneX said in a note to clients.
Fresh bullish inputs were required to sustain prices at the elevated levels reached recently, traders said.
The benchmark June lean hogs contract rose 0.225 cent, to 106.175 cents/lb. (all figures US$).
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported the pork carcass cutout value on Tuesday afternoon at $112.49, up $2.39 from Monday.
Cattle contracts weakened, with both fed cattle and live cattle hitting their lowest since late March.
CME June live cattle dropped 1.175 cents, to 120.925 cents/lb.
May fed cattle futures fell 2.275 cents to 147.325 cents/lb.
