Hedge funds are loading up with pork.
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 Corp. are selling more bacon, and the price of pork bellies used to make the rashers has surged 30 percent this year.
Demand at home and abroad is rising faster than U.S. 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 percent 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 Corp. in New York, who helps manage about $3 billion. "Exports have been strong, that's what's driving this."
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