U.S. employers added just 73,000 net new jobs in July, while May and June job numbers were revised sharply lower. But with the unemployment rate at a historically low 4.2%, these are the kinds of job numbers many economists expected for 2025. It’s hard to continue to add new jobs in a full employment economy.

In Friday’s monthly cattle report, USDA said feedlot inventories on July 1st were 11.12M head, down 1.6% from a year ago. New placements onto feedlots in June were down 7.9%. In May, the USDA (again) shut down the southern border to Mexican cattle imports due to an outbreak of “new world screwworm” disease.

On June 13, the EPA released a new Renewable Fuel Standard proposal that mandates a 2B+ gallon jump in renewable diesel production to 5.61B gallons in 2026. Additionally, the EPA slashed the Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) on imported biofuel feedstocks (like used cooking oil from China) by 50%.

Today is the day. On April 14, the International Trade Administration (division of the U.S. Department of Commerce) announced the U.S. would exit the 1996 Tomato Suspension Agreement with Mexico in 90 days (on July 14) if a new agreement was not reached.