CHICAGO, June 12 (Reuters) - Benchmark lean hog futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange set a one-month high on Monday on short-covering and bargain-buying as the July contract extended its rebound from life-of-contract lows set in late May, traders said.
CME July lean hogs settled up 1.975 cents at 91.600 cents per pound after reaching 93.125 cents, the contract's highest since May 1. August hogs ended up 3.425 cents at 87.375 cents a pound.
Firmer cash hog prices lent support. The CME lean hog index , a two-day weighted average of cash hog prices, rose by 48 cents to $84.28 per hundredweight (cwt), its highest since Nov. 25.
Commodity funds have been aggressively covering short positions in lean hog futures since the market bottomed in late May. Managed funds slashed their net short position in hog futures to 18,741 contracts in the week to June 6, data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed, compared with the prior week's net short of 35,442 contracts, the largest in CFTC records dating to 2006.
Traders shrugged off a slight down-tick in wholesale pork prices. The carcass cutout fell to $88.04 per cwt, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Monday afternoon, down 35 cents from Friday and below a five-month high of $89.06 set one week ago.
Cattle futures also rose on Monday, supported by expectations of continued strength in cash cattle prices this week and rising beef prices.
CME August live cattle futures settled up 1.350 cents at 173.200 cents per pound. August feeder cattle finished 0.050 cent higher at 239.050 cents per pound.
The USDA priced choice cuts of beef at $337.43 per cwt in the wholesale market, up $4.50 from Friday. Prices for select cuts jumped $4.53 to $310.24 per cwt. (Reporting by Julie Ingwersen; Editing by Richard Chang)
