Episode Details

Closing Bell Friday | September 11, 2026

Your daily market update on all things protein

HOST: Welcome to The Protein Pulse Podcast — your daily market update on all things protein. This is Closing Bell Friday for September 11, 2026, from The Sparks Group.

SHAWN: Twenty-five years ago this morning, I was in Oklahoma City working as a commodity and futures broker and hedging specialist. I remember exactly where I was when September 11 began to unfold. I remember watching it happen and realizing very quickly that whatever we thought that Tuesday was going to be about no longer mattered. Some days fade with time. That one never has. Twenty-five years later, I still think about the people who went to work that morning and never came home, the first responders who ran toward danger, and the families who have carried that loss every day since. Today, I simply remember. September 11, 2001. Never forget.

HOST: After that remembrance — the week. The shortened post-Labor Day tape ended with margin pressure shifting rather than disappearing.

SHAWN: Beef packers regained weekly profitability while feedlots moved deeper into the red. Pork margins compressed across both production and processing. Chicken remains the major protein with growing supply. Imported lean continues to trade well below domestic, although physical availability may limit how quickly the new tariff-free window is filled. Crude’s move above one hundred dollars added another layer of cost across freight, processing, and distribution.

HOST: Beef. The margin moved.

SHAWN: Sterling’s Beef Profit Tracker has estimated packer margin at plus one hundred sixty-nine twenty-two a head. Unhedged feedlot margin deteriorated to minus three hundred twenty-eight seventy-five. The breakeven on cattle marketed last week climbed to two forty-two fifty-two against five-area Choice steers averaging two nineteen oh four. A year ago, feedlots were making more than seven hundred a head. One profitable week does not mean the packing problem is solved.

HOST: Cattle sellers were pushing back Friday morning.

SHAWN: Asking prices moved to two twenty-five and higher live, with a small northern dressed trade reported at three fifty-five. Packers are buying for a full upcoming week, but feeders have little incentive to keep surrendering margin now that their own economics have turned sharply negative. Choice was around three seventy-eight. Select held near three fifty-two.

HOST: The more interesting move may be in the grind.

SHAWN: Domestic fresh nineties were around four thirty-five. Eighty-fives around three seventy-nine. Fresh fifties fell to roughly ninety-one cents. USDA characterized beef trimmings as mostly sharply lower on light demand and heavy offerings. That changes the equation even if domestic lean remains expensive. The ninety is only half the story. Watch the blend.

HOST: Chicken. Supply remains the difference.

SHAWN: Year-to-date chicken slaughter is up one point two percent. Cumulative broiler chick placements remain about two percent ahead of twenty twenty-five. USDA describes whole birds as steady with adequate supplies, breast meat at least steady, fair wing demand, and firm dark meat. Export markets were active. Twenty-seven members of Congress are pressing U S T R over remaining China poultry restrictions, arguing lost access is costing U.S. producers more than eight hundred million dollars a year. The pounds are there. Export access will help determine where they clear.

HOST: Pork. Both sides are getting squeezed.

SHAWN: Sterling estimates farrow-to-finish at forty-three forty-six a head, down from forty-six eighty-eight last week and seventy-six six