DTN Closing Livestock Comment 08/02 15:09

DTN Closing Livestock Comment 08/02 15:09 Livestock Lower Alongside Outside Markets At the close of the Wednesday session, most live cattle, feeder cattle and lean hog futures were anywhere from $0.30 to $1.80 lower, but these represent a bit of a recovery from the steepest intraday losses. A widespread sell-off of financial assets was triggered in the stock market Wednesday morning and spread into the commodity futures markets too. Elaine Kub Contributing Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: Spooked stock market traders triggered a widespread risk-off selling spree during Wednesday's trading session, and even in the livestock futures markets, all the bullish fundamentals in the world couldn't counteract the volume of sell orders. Because the reason for the stock sell-off was pretty esoteric and subjective, it's unlikely to have a lasting effect on livestock traders' real outlooks. For instance, the actual market for cash cattle is still expected to be strong later this week when short-bought packers finally establish some bids. Last week was marked at mostly $179 in the South and $294 in the North. The National Direct Afternoon Hog Report showed purchased swine prices down $2.13 to a weighted average of $101.87 on 4,647 head. Prices ranged from $93 to $106, and the 5-day rolling average is now $103.08. September corn moved down 8 3/4 cents to $4.88 1/4 per bushel and August soybean meal closed down $4.30 per ton to $451.80. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 347.79 points and the NASDAQ was down 347.27 points.