If this was NPR’s Marketplace, we’d be playing the happy music right now. CBOT grains and oilseeds, along with most CME livestock futures, closed higher today with active end-user buying. The soy complex continues to rally and give excellent margins to both U.S. and Argentine crushers while wheat futures continue riding the U.S Plains states drought. Outside markets are higher with the Dow up 228 points (0.91 percent) and the S&P 25.5 (0.95 percent) higher as well. The CBOE’s VIX index is 33 points higher and just under 20 while the U.S. dollar is 32 points lower at 89.68. COMEX gold is down $1.40 after yesterday’s huge jump higher while crude oil futures are slightly higher. Corn March corn future...
What You Need to Know Today: The corn and soybean markets closed slightly higher in low-volume trade. The wheat market was mixed, with HRW continuing its downward trek on improved moisture. As expected, the bearish cattle on feed report drove down cattle prices and pulled hogs down with it. Mi...
Monday, 25 May is a U.S. holiday, and both the markets and our office will be closed. Please note that the next issue of Ag Perspectives will be published on Tuesday, 26 May. The WPI staff wishes everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend...
USDA’s monthly cattle on feed report was released today. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity amounted to 11.6 million head, 102 percent of last year. Source: USDA, WPI Placements were up, but part of that is attributable to persistent drought c...
From WPI Consulting
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.