DTN Closing Livestock Comment 09/13 16:15
13 Sep 2017
DTN Closing Livestock Comment 09/13 16:15 Cattle Futures Capitalize on Late Rally, Closing Near Session Highs The cattle complex closed solidly higher with live contracts outperforming feeder issues. On the other hand, lean hog futures settled on a mixed basis thanks to inconsistent spreading strategies. By John Harrington DTN Livestock Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS Although packer inquiry in cattle-feeding country seemed respectable in the early rounds (i.e., at least in terms of a handful of bids), significant trade volume was never in danger of taking off. For one thing, asking prices opened on firm basis (e.g., $108 in the South and $107-$108/$170 in the North) and stayed that way, especially when live futures managed to move back toward the top of the late-summer trading range. The national hog base is $1.17 lower ($51-$56, weighted average $54.74). Corn futures tried to rally early, but bulls couldn't find enough glue to make it stick. At the close, most contracts were fractionally lower. The stock market closed higher with the Dow up 39 points and the Nasdaq better by 3.