Before the Iran war, the Middle East was the world’s top diesel exporter, with a 19% market share in 2025. North America followed with 15%, and Russia was third at 11%. But diesel shipments from Persian Gulf countries have shrunk to a quarter of their prewar levels.

In its quarterly report, the USDA said that all hog and pig inventories in the U.S. on September 1st (74.30M head) were down 1.5% below a year ago. Hogs kept for breeding (5.88M head) are 1.0% below year-ago levels and the lowest in 12 years.

In its monthly cattle report, the USDA said feedlot inventories on Sept 1st were 11.16M head, up 0.7% from a year ago. However, new placements onto feedlots in Aug were 9.2% below last year, and cattle marketings were down 3.3% at 1.52M head - a 30-year low for the month of Aug.

Last week, the Federal Reserve unanimously raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to a range of 3.75-to-4.00%. It was the first rate hike in 3 years. While the move was overdue economically, it was a bit of a surprise politically…