Hogs Fall on Signs of Increasing Pork Supplies; Cattle Decline

Hog futures fell the most in two weeks on signs that supplies of U.S. pork are outpacing consumer demand. Cattle dropped to the lowest price in six weeks.

U.S. inventories of frozen pork on July 31 increased 8.3 percent from a year earlier to 547.3 million pounds (248.3 million kilograms), the most ever for the month, the government said on Aug. 21. Last week, hogs in Iowa and southern Minnesota, the largest U.S. producing region, weighed 3.4 percent more on average than a year earlier, signaling higher meat supplies.

“Fundamentally, I don’t see anything meaningfully bullish long term,” said Dennis Smith, a senior account executive at Archer Financial Services Inc. in Chicago. “The big picture is still really bearish.”