DTN Closing Livestock Comment 04/01 15:27

DTN Closing Livestock Comment 04/01 15:27 Livestock Prices Mostly Lower After Wild Week Volatile outside markets, notably including the markets for feed grains like corn and soybean meal, influenced feeder cattle and lean hog futures trade this week. Otherwise, the fundamental implications of breeding herd size on the supply side and meat prices on the demand side both support steady or recovering livestock markets. Elaine Kub Contributing Analyst GENERAL COMMENTS: Livestock futures prices were mostly in the red at the end of Friday's trading session, with a few triple-digit losses. Lean hog futures kept up a heavy volume of profit-taking sales for the second-straight day. On the National Direct Afternoon Hog Report, negotiated prices were down $1.45 to a weighted average price of $100.87 on 3,980 head, and the 5-day rolling average was $104.02 per cwt. Cash cattle trade was quiet Friday afternoon with the business done for the week. Southern live trade has been marked at mostly $138, fully steady with the bulk of last week's deals. Northern dressed transactions have had a wide range of $219 to $228, mostly $222 to $225, roughly $1 to $4 higher than last week's weighted average basis Nebraska. May corn moved down 13 3/4 cents per bushel to $7.35 and May soybean meal was down $17.50 per ton to $450. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 139.79 points, and the NASDAQ is up 22.72 points.