Meanwhile, live and feeder cattle settled lower.

Lean hogs began mostly weak on follow-through selling, which weighed on nearby-October and remaining back months, while $3 per hundred weight higher Missouri direct hog quotes propped up spot-August.

Futures quickly adopted a noticeably bearish posture after unsubstantiated rumors entered the hog pit that China may have already purchased pork from the US and in less quantity than some bullish hog traders had anticipated. Board losses intensified after October and December violated key moving average support levels and tripped sell stops in the process.

Nonetheless, pork contracts at times fluttered up from morning lows aided by short covering, speculative buying and Chicago Board of Trade corn's rise from overnight bottoms.

However, hogs again slumped near the close as buying abated and October and December were unable to overcome what later became 10-day moving average resistance.