THE PROTEIN PULSE — DRIVE TIME Monday Market Open | November 9th, 2026

HOST: Protein Pulse Drive Time. Monday Market Open, November 9th. From The Sparks Group.

SHAWN: Washington changed. The consumer still decides. The election is over, the blue wave is real, and we're heading straight into Thanksgiving. That's a lot of change for an industry already dealing with expensive beef, shifting trade rules, disease threats and consumers watching every dollar. Washington is about to look very different. Farm policy, tariffs, labor and energy could all take a different direction. But don't confuse an election result with a change in protein prices. Those decisions haven't been made yet. Right now, the bigger test is happening at the grocery store. Turkey will draw shoppers through the doors, but what happens when they look at beef, pork and chicken prices? Holiday promotions can move product, but they don't make household budgets any bigger. I think we're entering a period where politics will shape the rules, but consumers will determine who wins. The industry needs to pay attention to both.

HOST: Choice grade cutout at three sixty seventy-nine, down seventy-seven cents. Select grade at three fifty-three fifty-six. Pork cutout at seventy sixty-five. Fresh nineties at three seventy-seven. West Texas Crude at ninety eighty-three. Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel at four thirty-three.

SHAWN: Friday's cash-cattle break, contrasting beef and pork export performance, and expanding animal-health risks point to a market where commercial exposure differs sharply by product, geography and timing. Thanksgiving will test what shoppers actually buy. January will test which policy proposals become real. Neither substitutes for confirmed prices and available supply today. Stay disciplined.

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

SHAWN: Stay disciplined.