DTN Closing Livestock Comment 12/21 15:49
21 Dec 2018
DTN Closing Livestock Comment 12/21 15:49 Livestock Futures Drift Through Late-Week Session With Mixed Prices With virtually no attention paid to new supply data released by USDA on Thursday, cattle traders exited for the Christmas holiday tied to lackluster settlements. Lean hog issues also finished in slow motion and without definite price direction. By John Harrington DTN Livestock Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: Moderate cash cattle trading finally surfaced leading into the Christmas break with most live deals marked at $119, generally steady with last week. A few scattered dressed transactions were turned in Iowa and Nebraska, steady/firm with last Friday. According to the closing report, the national hog base is $0.56 lower compared with the Prior Day settlement ($40-$45.14, weighted average $44.07). Spot March corn closed up 3 1/4 cents, a modest rebound from Thursday's implosion, albeit on lighter volume that put prices down 6 1/4 cents for the week. Like several commodities, corn price was influenced this week by outside markets and investor nervousness in general as the Dow Jones Industrials fell to new lows for the year. Ending its worst week in 10 years, the Dow settled 421 points lower. The Nasdaq lost 195.