In Friday’s monthly cattle report, the USDA said feedlot inventories on May 1st were 11.58M head, up 1.8% from a year ago. New placements onto feedlots in April were 5.5% above last year. Unfortunately, the reason for the increase was ranchers moving feeders off pasture and onto feedlots due to drought.

In last week’s WASDE report, the USDA pegged 2026/27 soy-oil usage for biofuel at 17.8B pounds – 54.6% of total soy-oil production for the crop year. USDA also raised its 2025/26 projected soy-oil price from $.5900/lb to $.6300; and pegged 2026/27 at $.7000/lb. Soy-oil futures are being driven primarily by biofuel demand.

Friday’s monthly jobs report was better than expected, with 115,000 net new jobs created in April and the unemployment rate remaining historically low at 4.3%. The U.S. economy has averaged 63,000 net new jobs per month so far this year (Jan-Apr).

Twenty percent of the world trade in liquid natural gas (LNG) must pass through the Strait of Hormuz. With the Strait blocked, natural gas futures in Europe are up over 40%, and in Asia it’s closer 80%. But here in the U.S., prices have plummeted.