THE PROTEIN PULSE — DRIVE TIME

Thursday Margin Monitor | October 29th, 2026

HOST: Protein Pulse Drive Time. Thursday Margin Monitor, October 29th. From The Sparks Group.

SHAWN: Look inside today's report at what's actually shifting across the board. In beef, Choice grade boxed beef slipped to three sixty-nine while weekly export sales dropped forty-one percent. New orders are slowing even as physical shipments rose seventeen percent. In pork, December hog futures tanked to fifty-eight sixty a pound while new export sales surged thirteen percent, led heavily by Mexico. Don't treat a paper board drop like a blanket clearance sale when actual overseas demand is right there in the numbers. Overhead, December Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel futures pushed past four sixty a gallon. That screen rally won't change today's contracted freight rate, but watch the timing and terms of your fuel surcharges. Ignore the screen noise. Trade what lands at your dock.

HOST: Choice grade cutout at three sixty-nine, down three twenty-two. Pork cutout at seventy-two forty-five. Fresh nineties at three ninety F-O-B. Imported nineties at three oh eight F-C-A. West Texas Crude at one oh two seventy-eight. Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel at four sixty-six.

SHAWN: Arizona confirmed screwworm in a dog. Brazil's Newcastle restrictions remain destination-specific. Ignore the screen noise. Trade what lands at your dock. Stay disciplined.

HOST: Protein Pulse Drive Time. Shawn Sparks, The Sparks Group.

SHAWN: Stay disciplined.