On the other hand, after languishing in negative territory for most of the morning, remaining hog contracts sprang to life amid a spate of speculative buying driven by sharply higher CBOT corn futures.

Nonetheless, earlier hog declines dropped February through April and October and 2008 December trading months to fresh contract lows.

Pork futures sagged at the start on follow-through selling and disinterested buyers. Prospective bulls took a step back on the open following pork cutouts' continued downtrend.

Furthermore, after February and April made new contract lows Wednesday, speculative shoppers waited for additional fresh monthly lows Thursday before making their move.

At one point, December through June briefly found their way to positive trading turf as shorts rang the register. Additionally, December and February garnered buying sympathy because of their oversold technical situations.

But the rally later sputtered as buying dried up, especially after some major direct hog market quotes came in down more than $2 per hundredweight. Also, a few traders in the pit minimized losses by selling December hogs and buying December live cattle contracts.