DTN Closing Livestock Comment 02/16 15:09

DTN Closing Livestock Comment 02/16 15:09 Lower Futures Thursday Haven't Knocked Out Bullish Mood for Cattle A relatively quiet day of futures trading in the livestock sector Thursday allowed most live cattle, feeder cattle and lean hog contracts to pull back lower. But supportive beef and pork demand may keep the overall trend bullish. Elaine Kub Contributing Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: Alongside surging pork and beef prices, average lean hog bids from the packers have been improving this week (before a pullback Thursday), and there is some momentum on the side of the cash cattle market too, but Thursday's livestock futures trade mostly ignored the bullish supply-and-demand arguments and instead pulled prices back to counteract gains made earlier in the week. In the cash cattle market, asking prices remain around $163 live basis, so far unmatched by packers' bids at $160. The National Direct Afternoon Hog Report showed purchased swine prices down $0.54 to a weighted average of $76.82 on 5,917 head. Prices ranged from $75 to $80, and the five-day rolling average is now $76.73. March corn closed down 1/4 cent to $6.76 per bushel and March soybean meal closed up $0.30 per ton to $491.40. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 431.66 points and the NASDAQ was down 245.41 points.