This afternoon’s USDA Cold Storage Report showed lighter beef and pork stocks in cold storage than expected. As of May 31, pork stocks in storage totaled 636.084 million lbs., which was lower than the 643.3 million lbs. traders expected. Pork stocks came in 8.6% under April, but 16% above year-ago. Beef stocks totaled 498.607 million lbs. at the end of May, which was lower than the 521.5 million lbs. traders expected. Beef stocks came in 3.7% under month-ago, but 11.4% above May 2011 inventories.
Total poultry stocks at the end of May were 1.151 billion lbs., up 10.4% from month-ago but 5% under year-ago.
