DTN Closing Livestock Comment 03/31 16:26
31 Mar 2016
DTN Closing Livestock Comment 03/31 16:26 Feeder Cattle Futures Storm Limit Up on Corn Planting News While pressured in the early going, cattle futures reversed to close sharply higher, especially in terms of feeder contracts. Lean hogs contracts settled moderately lower, checked by follow-through selling and long liquidation. By John Harrington DTN Livestock Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: Light-to-moderate business developed between Southern packers and feedlots with most live sales tagged at $133, $3 lower than last week. Scattered dressed deals were reported in Nebraska and Iowa at $214-$215, about steady with Wednesday and $3-$4 lower than last week. According to the closing report, the Iowa hog base is $0.29 lower compared with the Prior Day settlement ($61.00-$63.50, weighted average $62.94). Shocked by the size of prospective corn planting (i.e., 93.6 million acres, 3.6 million more than the average trade guess), corn futures collapsed by 15 cents or more with most months settling with new contract lows. U.S. stocks closed narrowly mixed ahead of the monthly employment report due Friday. The Dow closed 31 points lower with the Nasdaq virtually unchanged.