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DTN Closing Livestock Comment 03/21 16:25

21 Mar 2016
DTN Closing Livestock Comment 03/21 16:25 Cattle Futures Settle Sharply Lower Ignoring recent cash gains, cattle futures settled sharply lower with feeders losing ground to their live counterparts. Lean hog futures also stumbled with triple-digit losses, pressured by long liquidation and pre Hogs & Pigs report jitters. By John Harrington DTN Livestock Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: The cash cattle market was limited to the distribution of new showlists. Ready numbers are mixed, smaller in the North but larger in the South (especially Texas). Though initial asking prices were poorly defined in the early rounds, we expected feedlot managers to quickly set the bar at least several dollars higher (e.g., $142 to $143 basis the South). According to the closing report, the Iowa hog base is .38 higher compared with the Prior Day settlement ($54.00-62.00, weighted average $61.52). The corn market finished 2 cents plus higher, supported in part by spillover buying from the wheat market. Wall Street closed slightly higher in low volume, supported by telecommunications and health care stocks. The Dow closed 21 points higher with the Nasdaq better by 13.