Hogs

• Lean hog futures were mixed on Friday afternoon with front month April down $0.05 at $95.625 and the Jun-Dec contracts up $0.30 to $0.675.  

• The national negotiated average ended the week at $91.69 slightly below the calendar year high set earlier in the week.

• The pork cutout was $98.27 on Friday afternoon, which was the lowest print of the week, but overall the cutout performed well over the course of the week making new calendar year highs.

April’26 Hogs 

Grains

• Crude oil opened sharply higher on Sunday evening and is providing strong support for corn and soybeans. Crude oil is up over $20 on Sunday evening and at its highest levels since summer 2022.

• Corn futures gapped higher on the open Sunday evening following surging crude oil prices resulting from shipping concerns in the Strait of Hormuz. March corn is up a dime at the time of this writing. The May-Sep contracts are up $0.12 to $0.1275.   

• Soybean futures are also sharply higher on Sunday evening with March up $0.28 at $12.13 and the May-Sep $0.22 to $0.27.

• Soybean oil being an input for biodiesel continues to be the strongest driver of the soybean complex with March soy oil up over $3.00/cwt on Sunday evening.

May’26 Corn 

May’26 Soybeans

Cattle

• Live cattle futures ended the week sharply lower with April down $3.95 at $234.575 and Jun-Oct down $3.80 to $4.375.

• Negotiated trade was lower on the week with most trade taking place near $240. That was down $4 in the south and down $2 in the north vs the week prior. 

• Boxed beef prices finished a strong week with choice up $0.33 at $387.22. The was the highest weekly finish since last September. Select was down $1.66 at $378.95. The scaled back cattle harvest in recent weeks due to poor packer margins are supporting the recent move higher.  

April’26 Cattle

Weather

• Heavy rains fell across the center of the country over the weekend, dry in the Plains and WCB; another system is on tap mid-week, again favoring the SE belt and southeastern U.S. Extended maps have moved towards a wet north and dry center/south pattern, with temps only briefly dipping for the 6-10 day.
• Argentina saw scattered rains across the weekend and that action continues over the next ten days; Brazilian weekend rains were widespread and remain so over the next week-plus, with some harvesting delays resulting.