Pork bellies and feeder cattle ended higher while live cattle futures closed flat to firm.

Lean hogs dipped on the open as potential longs stepped back to gauge market direction. Also, spot-April and nearby-June's mildly overbought Relative Strength Indicators triggered initial selling.

Futures then began weaving in and out of negative territory as participants weighed bearish board premiums against solid fundamentals.

Meanwhile, Chicago Board of Trade corn's erratic movement at times swayed deferred hog contracts.

Spot-April appeared to stabilize after midday direct cash hog quotes came in sharply higher. Also, light buying interest occurred after the spot-month pierced the 59.00-cent psychological resistance barrier.