Lean hogs opened amid general weakness on spillover liquidation, depressed cash hog pries and lack of initial buying interest. Futures' premiums to CME's hog barometer contributed to the market's early bearish mood that ultimately pressed February though July to new contract lows.

Despite continued negative subsequent cash news, futures gradually floated up from session bottoms with the help of short covering. Also, front-months' extremely oversold chart situations provided added lift.

And February/April forward spreaders challenged sporadic Goldman rolling partly because of the spot month's relative price value compared with other contracts, a trader said.

"February is the cheapest thing on the board, so some guys felt a little more comfortable taking a shot at it," the trader said.

Meanwhile, other speculative buyers turned their attention to distant hog months because of CBOT corn's dramatic price surge.