DTN Closing Livestock Comment 10/02 15:40

DTN Closing Livestock Comment 10/02 15:40 Beef Futures Close Tough Week With Short-Covering Gains Live and feeder cattle futures closed significantly higher, supported by short covering and the correction of oversold charts. Lean hog contracts settled with solid progress thanks to generally friendly fundamentals that seem to be trumping seasonal bearishness. By John Harrington DTN Livestock Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: The cash castle trade was very slow through the day with both sides admitting to be confused regarding the real value of live inventory. Both futures and the wholesale beef trade tried to stabilize a bit right before the weekend. But few have a good handle on market prospects as we move toward the first full week of October. According to the closing report, the Iowa hog base is $0.13 higher compared with the Prior Day settlement ($62.00-$73.00, weighted average $71.14). For the most part, corn futures closed fractionally lower through a market round that was both lightly traded and listless. From Friday to Friday, commodities marked the following changes: October live, off 1,063 points; December live, off 563; October feeder, off 510; November feeder, off 708; October hogs, up 147; December hogs, off 40; December corn, unchanged. U.S. stocks closed more than 1% higher, recovering from an initial decline of more than 1.5%, as investors digested higher oil prices and a weaker-than-expected jobs report (i.e., an increase of only 142,000 jobs). The Dow closed 200 points higher with the Nasdaq better by 83.