Grains in the Red. Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025

Shortly after 9:15 a.m. CT, December corn was down 3¼¢ at $4.20 per bushel.

November soybeans were down less than a penny at $10.31 per bushel.

December CBOT wheat was down 4¾¢ at $5 per bushel. December KC wheat was down 4¼¢ at $4.85¾ per bushel. December Minneapolis wheat was down 1¾¢ at $5.46¾.

December live cattle were up $1.10 at $244.75 per hundredweight (cwt). January feeder cattle were up 53¢ at $369.70 per cwt. December lean hogs were down 3¢ at $82.05 per cwt.

“Cattle futures plummeted on Friday following a comment from President Trump that he had a deal that would lower beef prices,” said Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist at StoneX. “We learned on Sunday that his plan included importing more beef from Argentina, in the wake of his $20 billion bailout of the country, as he tries to woo that country back out of the influence of China. Cattle futures fell sharply due to fears that the supply of beef would increase in the United States with higher imports. Much of Argentina’s beef exports currently go to China, so it would likely send China more to Brazil to fill its needs, in addition to other sources.

“But the longer-term concern is that lower beef prices could discourage U.S. producers from rebuilding their breeding herds, which ultimately leaves us more dependent on imports rather than domestic consumption. Trump put high tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to raise domestic prices sufficiently to stimulate development of the domestic steel and aluminum industries. Yet, in this case, he’s expecting to get the same result by following the opposite strategy.”

As of 9:17 a.m. CT, December crude oil was down 19¢ at $56.83 per barrel.

The U.S. Dollar Index December contract was up to 98.66.

As of 9:13 a.m. CT, the S&P 500 Index was down 5.63 points, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 105.04 points.

Tags: wheat, live cattle, feeder cattle, lean hogs, bushel, corn, soybeans