DTN Closing Livestock Comment 12/21 16:51
21 Dec 2015
DTN Closing Livestock Comment 12/21 16:51 Bullish Cattle Traders Take Aggressive Advantage of Extended Limits The cattle complex closed sharply higher once again thanks to aggressive short-covering, technical buying, and the bullish supply implications of the December on-feed report. Yet lean hog futures were not swept away by the cattle bullishness, closing moderately lower for the most part. By John Harrington DTN Livestock Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: Feedlot country was typically quiet as packers moved to collect new showlists. Ready numbers appeared to be some larger in the North and smaller in the South. Understandably, asking prices were poorly defined as few wanted to get in the way of soaring futures. According to the closing report, the Iowa hog base is $0.57 higher compared with the Prior Day settlement ($47.50-$49.75, weighted average $49.59). Corn futures settled several cents lower, pressured by simply light volume and a general lack of constructive news. U.S. stocks closed higher, recovering slightly from a sharp sell-off last week. The Dow closed 123 points higher with the Nasdaq better by 45.