DTN Closing Livestock Comment 06/23 16:20
23 Jun 2017
DTN Closing Livestock Comment 06/23 16:20 Live and Feeder Cattle Temporarily Benefit From Late-Week Short-Covering The cattle complex staged a late-week recovery, supported by pre-report short-covering and profit-taking. On the other hand, lean hog futures settled mostly lower with August losing ground to both spot July and deferreds. By John Harrington DTN Livestock Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS The cash cattle trade was very quiet Friday with both bids and asking prices difficult to identify. Given sharply lower sales at midweek, some producers simply decided to carry cattle over into Monday rather than entertain still lower packer bids. The national hog base closed off $0.29 compared with the prior day settlement ($83.50-$88.25, weighted average $85.85). From Friday to Friday, livestock futures scored the following changes: Jun LC Off $2.50; Aug LC Off $2.90; Aug FC Off $2.92; Sep FC Off $2.95; Jul LH Up $2.98; Aug LH Off $0.47. Corn futures closed generally a nickel lower, further pressured by predictions of near-ideal growing weather. Note that December corn set a new low for 2017 (i.e. $3.74). The stock market closed on a mixed basis with the Dow off 2 points and the Nasdaq off by 28. `