DTN Closing Livestock Comment 10/08 16:10

DTN Closing Livestock Comment 10/08 16:10 Cattle Markets Score Good Week Despite light to moderate pressure on Friday, the cattle complex saw gains during the week. Wild market swings over the last two weeks have finally created market stability, as mixed live cattle trade Friday appears to be setting the market up for a more fundamentally based trade next week. By Rick Kment, DTN Contributing Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: From Friday to Friday, livestock futures scored the following changes: Oct live cattle up $5.18, Dec live cattle up $5.05, Oct feeder cattle up $6.72, Nov feeder cattle up $8.25, Oct lean hogs off $2.05 and Dec lean hogs off $3.68. Trade Friday turned into a mixed bag of market adjustments and late-week positioning in not only the livestock market, but most commodity and financial markets as well. Mixed trade in live cattle and lean hog futures kept traders uncertain of where markets would land at the end of the day, but the light volume and generally tight trading ranges seemed to create little concern that wide-ranging market swings would redevelop. Over the last two weeks, cattle and hog futures have posted extremely wide and volatile market swings. It appears that this volatility has run its course, helping traders return to more fundamentally based trade decisions early next week. Hog prices moved lower on the National Direct Afternoon Hog Report in moderate trade, falling $0.92 with a weighted average of $69.26 on 8,199 head. December corn is down 3 1/2 cents per bushel, and December soybean meal is down $0.60 per ton. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 8 points, and the NASDAQ is down 74 points.