1/27/2026 Market Commentary

Live Cattle: Live Cattle futures spent the majority of the day lower as traders wait for cash direction this week. Last week’s higher market came as a bit of a surprise to many and caused the futures to finish sharply higher on Friday. Asking prices for this week are for higher money than last week’s trade, but there have not been any packer bids to speak of. Last Friday’s Cattle on Feed Report showed the quarterly breakdown of steers and heifers in feed yards. Compared to a year ago, both steers and heifers are 97% of a year ago. 61% of the cattle in 1000 head or bigger yards are steers and 39% are heifers. This is a 1% increase of heifers compared to a year ago. This Friday’s Cattle Inventory Report will shed more light toward the state of heifers being held for replacements. According to the Cattle on Feed Report, there is not any retention taking place which would differ from what is being seen across most regions and in sale barns.

Feeder Cattle: Feeder Cattle futures recovered nicely today after being over 2.000 lower this morning. Impressive sale prices continue to come out of sale barns across the U.S. keeping the CME Feeder Cattle index supported. Currently, the index is quoted at $364.73, which is down from the $370+ that was seen just ten days ago but is beginning to work back higher. Many sale barns in the South canceled or postponed sales this week due to the cold weather. This will reduce the number of head figured into the index, but should lift the overall weighted average price compared to a week ago. The January Feeder Cattle contract will expire this Thursday at noon and is currently trading at a $2.12 premium to the index. All Feeder Cattle sales through this Thursday will be included in the index.

Lean Hogs: Lean Hog futures again posted another round of new contract highs today. All contracts except the nearby February contract posted new highs at the open this morning before falling lower throughout the day. Last week’s slaughter total was revised down 16,000 head compared to the original estimate. Open interest has increased 50,000 contracts the past two weeks which is a 17% increase and has pushed open interest back above 350,000 contracts for the first time in over four months. The pork cutout has found support and is now over $97.00 helping support the cash markets that have also turned higher and are now all above year-ago levels.

Corn: Corn futures have failed to find lasting support both days this week. Both days the Corn market has traded higher and then worked lower throughout the day. After the recovery from the lows set after the WASDE Report, corn futures have recovered 10-15 cents but are failing to find support past these levels. The wheat markets have also lost their upward momentum the past few days and wheat had been giving Corn some support. Export inspections released yesterday were again okay and put the U.S. 350 million bushels ahead of the pace needed to meet the current USDA export goal. The bottom line of the grain markets is that extremely good demand has been matched with large supplies and traders are looking for a new demand surprise to help shrink the carryout.