Rise in demand for pork in US made money managers most-bullish after 2014

NEW YORK: With Americans expected to eat the most pork since 2007, money managers are now the most-bullish since 2014 on hog futures, which already are at a nine-month high.

Fast-food restaurant owners like McDonald’s are selling more bacon, and the price of pork bellies used to make the rashers has surged 30% this year. Demand at home and abroad is rising faster than US farmers are boosting output.

Pork remains a cheaper alternative to beef cuts that last year surged to records as supply shrank, government data show. Hog futures for settlement in June are up 16% since mid-November, more than almost every other commodity, including gold. “You have to be bullish in the near term,” said Donald Selkin, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York, who helps manage about $3 billion. “Exports have been strong, that’s what’s driving this.”

The net-long position in hog futures and options jumped 20% to 51,505 contracts in the week ended March 15, the biggest gain in more than a month, according to Commodity Futures and Trading Commission data released three days later. Holdings have surged sixfold since mid-December and expanded in 13 of the past 14 weeks. Futures for June settlement, most-actively traded hog contract, fell 1.9% to 82.275 cents a pound on CME.