DTN Closing Livestock Comment 05/05 17:03
5 May 2016
DTN Closing Livestock Comment 05/05 17:03 Cattle Complex Futures Explode Higher Live and feeder contracts surged higher Thursday with triple-digit gains, supported by aggressive short-covering and technical buying. Lean hog futures settled moderately higher with the help of positive fundamentals and spillover buying from the cattle trade. By John Harrington DTN Livestock Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: Besides a few token bids (e.g., $118 in Texas, $188-$191 in parts of the North) scattered here and there, the cash cattle trade remained extremely quiet. Some asking prices were suggested around $126-$127 in the South and $196 to $198-plus in the North. According to the closing report, the national hog base is $0.16 higher compared with the Prior Day settlement ($66.00-$73.00, weighted average $71.26). The corn market settled 1-3 cents lower, checked a bit by forecasts of warming temps and drier planting conditions. U.S. stocks closed narrowly mixed as oil failed to hold much of its intraday gains and investors awaited the key employment report due Friday. The Dow closed 9 points higher with the Nasdaq off 8.