By Kirk Maltais
The Agriculture Department reported a larger uptick in hogs weighing over 180 pounds than expected by analysts.
The USDA said Thursday in its quarterly Hogs and Pigs report that the inventory of hogs weighing more than 180 pounds totaled 12.9 million head as of March 1, up 2.5 percentage points from the same time last year.
Analysts were looking for a smaller uptick, closer to 1 point.
All hogs and pigs totaled 74.3 million head through March 1, which is up 0.4 points from the same time last year.
That's less than forecast by analysts, who were looking for an uptick closer to 1 point.
Animals kept for breeding fell 1.5 points to 5.9 million head, which was a larger decrease than anticipated by analysts.
Lean hog futures trading on the CME settled slightly lower for the day, dropping 0.1% to 90.825 cents a pound. Live cattle futures finished up 0.3% to $2.35225 a pound.
Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
03-26-26 1544ET
