CME lean hogs garnered mixed results Friday on pre-weekend spreading, pork bellies closed lower on lack of sufficient buying interest. February hogs closed up 55 at 66.70, April ended down 20 at 66.72, February bellies ended down 175 at 80.00, March closed down 75 also at 80.00.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle crossed the finish line strong Friday, ridden by aggressive fund buying. Feeder cattle also ended higher with help from buying in the neighboring live cattle pit. February live cattle ended up 87 at 87.42, April finished up 32 at 90.40. March feeder cattle gained 107 to 98.32, April ended up 70 at 99.67.
U.S. wheat futures closed mostly lower Friday in a setback from gains and amid pressure from outside influences, but the markets ended little-changed for the week. March wheat in Chicago closed down 2 1/2 at $4.73, March wheat in KC fell 4, to $4.84 and Minneapolis Grain Exchange March wheat rose 3/4 to $5.02.
CBOT corn ended lower Friday amid bearish outside markets and technical pressure. March corn ended down 2 1/2 at $3.50 and May corn ended down 2 1/4 to $3.63.
Soybean futures at CBOT finished a choppy two-sided session modestly lower, Soy product futures stumbled, backpedalling on corrections March soybeans ended down 1/2 at $9.13, March soy meal dropped $0.20 to $271.00 and March soy oil dropped 21 to 37.00.
Cotton futures fell to their lowest levels since October Friday on spillover weakness from equities and other commodities. March cotton fell 237 to 66.62, May finished down 227 at 68.23.
Gold futures extended three-month lows Friday in a follow-through to large declines the previous session as investors continued to move away from perceived riskier assets. April gold fell $10.20 to $1,052.80 an ounce, March silver lost 52 cents to $14.83 an ounce.
Crude oil futures fell sharply for the second day in a row Friday after breaking through a key support level that traders had been watching for a sign of whether the energy markets would continue to trend lower. March crude closed at $71.19 a barrel, March gasoline dropped 6.44 cents to $1.88 a gallon, March heating oil fell 6.04 cents to $1.87 a gallon.
Natural gas futures ended higher Friday on forecasts for cold weather that is expected to drive demand for the fuel. March Natural gas gained 9.9 cents to $5.51.
A 167-point plunge on the Dow evaporated on Friday as the bulls staged an impressive comeback that allowed the Dow to keep its head above the closely-watched 10000 threshold despite continued fears about soaring deficits in Europe. The Dow finished at 10,012, up 10, the Nasdaq closed at 2,141, up 15 2/3 and the S&P 500 closed up 3 at 1,066.
|