DTN Closing Livestock Comment 04/07 16:53

DTN Closing Livestock Comment 04/07 16:53 Cattle Futures Score Bullish Reversals After struggling in red ink for most of the session, live and feeder futures rallied higher through the closing hour thanks to aggressive short-covering and signs of greater packer spending in the country. Lean hogs also firmed late in the trading day to close mostly higher. By John Harrington DTN Livestock Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: Greater trade volume and higher prices in feedlot country Thursday clearly reflected improving beef packer appetites. Live sales in the South ranged from $133 to $134, steady to $1 higher than Wednesday and last week. Dressed deals in Nebraska and Iowa were marked as high as $215, steady with last week but $3 higher than Wednesday/Thursday. According to the closing report, the national hog base is $0.60 lower compared with the Prior Day settlement ($55.00-64.50, weighted average $61.01). Corn futures settled generally 3 cents higher, supported decent weekly export sales. U.S. stocks closed lower as strength in the yen against the dollar renewed concerns about global growth and the effectiveness of central bank policy. The Dow stumbled 174 points lower with the Nasdaq off 72.