Hogs

• Lean hog futures finished mixed on Tuesday with Feb up $0.20 at $84.625 and the Apr-Oct down $.475 to up $0.50.
• The negotiated national average posted at $70.00 up $1.92 from last Friday with no posting Monday due to confidentiality. 
• The pork cutout was down $1.30 on Monday afternoon at $91.80.

Feb 26 Hogs

Grains

• Corn futures saw follow through weakness after Monday’s bearish USDA WASDE. March settled down $.0175 at $4.1975, and May-Sept were down $0.0275 to $0.055.
• The futures market appears poised to test the mid-August lows and is now two cents to a dime away depending on the contract month.
• Soybeans also traded lower on Tuesday with March down $0.1025 at $10.3875, while the May-Sept contracts were $0.09 to $0.0975 lower.
• Soybean oil is bucking the down trend and continuing to rally with its strong correlation to crude oil which closed at three-month highs on Tuesday.

March 26 Corn

March 26 Soybeans

Cattle

• Live cattle futures continued to push higher on Tuesday, closing at their highest levels since mid-October. Front month Feb was up $2.00 at $237.25, while the Apr-Oct contracts were up $2.55 to $2.90.
• Cattle feeders will need higher cash prices this week in order to avoid historically weak basis levels.
• Boxed beef was mixed with choice up $0.88 at $357.99 and select down $0.87 at $357.18.

Feb 26 Cattle

Weather

• The U.S. remains dry over the next ten days before a wetter 11-15 day; temps will move to a cold north/NW and warm west/SW heading into the end of Jan
• Argentine rains will fall north through Friday while the center-south remains dry, and all areas stay dry into the 6-10; Brazilian precip looks widespread up into the weekend, but favors northern crop areas for the 6-10 day time frame.