DTN Closing Livestock Comment 01/21 16:33

DTN Closing Livestock Comment 01/21 16:33 Volatile Livestock Futures Swing Back Sharply Higher The cattle complex staged yet another recovery, scoring triple-digit gains as outside markets allow new breathing room. Lean hog contracts also pushed sharply higher, spurred by improving fundamentals and collateral support. By John Harrington DTN Livestock Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: Cattle buying interest made only a token appearance Thursday, dropping a few uninspiring bids of $127-$128 and then retiring to the sideline once it became obvious that feedlot psychology was mending along with sharply higher futures. Asking prices were not well defined with just a few suggestions around $135-plus in the South and $212-plus in the North. According to the closing report, the Iowa hog base is $0.56 higher compared with the Prior Day settlement ($54.00-$57.00, weighted average $56.28). The corn market opened higher but was unable to build on the early advantage. Prices settle 1-2 cents lower with some expressing concern about tightening ethanol margins. Equities managed to recover some time with the help of rebounding oil prices. The Dow closed 115 points higher with the Nasdaq basically unchanged.