And, market bears sold into periodic front-month up ticks due to trailing pork cutout values and eroding cash hog prices. What's more, record hog kills and USDA's cold storage report, which is also slated for Friday at 3 p.m. EST, dampened buying interest.

Analysts' average projection for belly stocks for November is 37.6 million pounds based on a range from 35.209 million to 41.0 million pounds. Ham forecasts were 88.0 million to 95.0 million pounds. And, total pork inventory for last month was estimated around 489.8 million pounds.

Saturday's hog kill is estimated at 300,000 head, some of which is to make up for hogs that will not be processed Monday because of Tuesday's holiday.

Another weekend of winter weather is forecast for the Midwest that could create transportation snarls for producers and processors, a broker said.

Pork bellies finished moderately higher on short covering, February's oversold chart condition and speculative hedging ahead of the federal government's cold storage report.