DTN Closing Livestock Comment 12/22 16:32
22 Dec 2015
DTN Closing Livestock Comment 12/22 16:32 Cattle Futures Score Another Round of Triple-Digit Gains Live and feeder contracts cooled off a bit Tuesday, but still managed to close sharply higher with the help of short covering and signs of greater packer spending. But lean hog issues managed to finished no better than mixed with nearbys gaining on deferred. By John Harrington DTN Livestock Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: The cash cattle trade was mostly light Tuesday and essentially limited to parts of Kansas and Texas. Yet sales were sharply higher at $122-$124, $5-$7 higher than last week. The North remained pretty much untested with packers presumable waiting to show their hand until Wednesday. According to the closing report, the Iowa hog base is $0.91 higher compared with the Prior Day settlement ($45.00-$49.25, weighted average $48.63). Corn futures slumped a nickel or so lower thanks to ample global supplies and lackluster signs of demand. Equities closed higher, helped by some stabilization in oil prices. The Dow closed 165 points higher with the Nasdaq better by 32.