The government is back in session today, which did not impress the grains markets. Overnight trade was mixed with grains lower and the soy complex gained on Argentine weather concerns. By mid-day, however, the CBOT board was red with corn, wheat, and the soy complex lower. The livestock complex was lower early in the day before mid-day buying lifted cattle futures. Outside markets are generally higher as of this writing, with the S&P 500 and the Dow up 8 and 14 points, respectively. The CBOE’s VIX is slightly lower at 10.78 while the Dollar Index is flat after early-day losses. COMEX gold is slightly higher as it consolidates near the top of its recent trading range. Crude oil futures are roughly $1.25/barrel higher with WT...
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.