DTN Closing Livestock Comment 11/27 16:09

DTN Closing Livestock Comment 11/27 16:09 Cattle Complex Futures Close Moderately Higher Live and feeder cattle contracts concluded a choppy, holiday-shortened session by closing moderately higher. On the other hand, lean hog futures settled mostly lower with deferreds losing ground to spot Dec and Feb. By John Harrington DTN Livestock Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: Despite essentially boycotting the cash market before Thanksgiving, cattle buyers have been very slow in entertaining higher feedlot asking prices in the eleventh hour. Indeed, the country trade remains to be determined as of this writing. Best bids are no better than $195 to $196 in the North (with asking prices around $200-plus) and $124 in the South (with asking prices around $131-plus). According to the closing report, the Iowa hog base is .32 lower compared with the Prior Day settlement ($47.00-$52.25, weighted average $51.84). Corn futures closed 4-5 cents higher in thin volume. Besides a lack of buying interest, the late-week grain trade continued to be troubled by the strong dollar. Equities ended narrowly mixed in light volume. Market talk was limited to declines in Disney and oil, as well as Black Friday shopping results. The Dow closed 14 points lower with the Nasdaq up 11.