Hogs

• Lean hog futures were able to close positive for the day in nearly all the contracts. October gained a $1.1 and Dec gained $0.45, meanwhile next years contracts gain $.05 - $.125 cents.
• Cutout gained a $1.69, up to $119.09. It is pretty impressive we have seen this late summer rally in this cutout near our cutout highs in early summer.
• USDA’s national base hog price was reported at $108.25, up $1.52. The CME index was up 15 cents at $110.25 on August 7^th. Slaughter was estimated at 482,000 head for Monday, that was 57,000 above LW but down 2,430 from the same week LY.
• Brazil finance minister Fernando Haddad said his meeting with Scott Bessent was cancelled.  That was a setback for the Brazilian government, which had hoped to use the meeting to negotiate tariffs after U.S. President Donald Trump's administration imposed 50% duties on several Brazilian goods. The minister lamented that Brazil was not even able to sit at the table to negotiate tariffs with the United States and criticized what he called "pseudo-Brazilians" in Washington lobbying against their own country.
• Donald Trump has once again delayed implementing sweeping tariffs on China, announcing another 90-day pause just hours before the last agreement between the world’s two largest economies expired. On Monday, Trump signed an executive order extending the deadline for higher tariffs on China until 9 November, officials confirmed to Reuters.

Grains

• Grains are lower. Soybeans sharply. S&P 500 is close to contract highs. Gold is lower. US dollar is lower.
• China trade deal deadline has been extended to Nov. 9. Tariff rate on imports from China will remain at 30%.
• National corn and soybean condition ratings fell by a point each this week, to 72% and 68% good/excellent, respectively; both remain safely ahead of LY and average, with progress metrics both crops in line with LY and 5YA figures as well. The winter wheat harvest advanced from 86% to 90% complete this week, down slightly from 92% LY and the 91% 5YA. Spring wheat ratings rose by a point this week to 49% g/ex, still well behind 72% last year, with the harvest of that crop up from 5% to 16% done as of Sunday night, even with last season but behind the 22% five-year average pace.
• Below is the average trade guess for todays WASDE at 11 a.m. Interestingly enough, we have quite a wide range of estimates for their corn yields. It will be interesting to see how willing the USDA is to increase their yield number on this report.

Cattle

• Cattle futures had a volatile day yesterday. The front month August live cattle contract traded down to 2 bucks lower but ended the day higher. The deferred ranged from .125 to .85 cents higher. Yet nervousness that the market has made a major top has increased.  It’s true the bull market is more than 5-years old.
• Choice gained $2.68 on the day and ended at 381.52. Select gained $4.52 on the day ended at 359.61.
• The feeder cattle index is sitting at $341.04 as of August 8^th. Slightly above the board price. Last weeks big red day in the feeder cattle contract got us to about par compared to the index, and it seems as if the market is ok be at par with the index.
• The volume of sales in last week’s cash market was smaller than the previous week keeping packer inventories short. Show lists in Texas were down more than increases in Nebraska and Kansas. Trading will likely be delayed until later in the week.

Weather

• Rains favored the southern Plains and U.S. over the past 24 hours, shifting out southeastward today and tomorrow before more northern rain chances up into the weekend. 6-10 day maps continue the same wet pattern, a bit drier for the 11-15 day. Temperatures remain on the warm side up into late August.