World Perspectives

Deep Water; Economic Truth; Double Squeeze; WTO Weaknesses

Deep Water USDA ignored the advice of the National Organic Standards Board (NAOB) and organic hardliners by allowing the continued use of carrageenan in organic-labeled foods. Carrageenan is extracted from seaweed that is grown naturally (sans human involvement) in the sea and then typically dried by the sun. Critics contended that some studies showed laboratory animals incurring intestinal problems from consuming the thickening agent. The problem with that argument is that “some” studies can be found that would show the same observation about any substance deemed organic, natural or conventional. They could equally have argued that the sun is radiation, and therefore carrageenan will irradiate people. The real problem is that...

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Market Commentary: Corn and Beans Bravely Higher Ahead of the WASDE

The U.S. government reopened today and the data fog partially lifted in Washington. However, many economic reports will first require time to repopulate their databases. USDA made the decision to publish the November WASDE tomorrow ahead of the agreement to reopen the government and traders spe...

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Writing about what the markets say will happen the day before a major USDA report is always a risky - but still useful - endeavor. This year, the recent U.S. government shutdown and U.S.-China trade war/trade deal intensify these dynamics of risk and worthiness. The shutdown, of course, by remo...

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Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.415/bushel, up $0.0625 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Wheat closed at $5.3575/bushel, down $0.0025 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $11.47/bushel, up $0.1325 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $328.4/short ton, up $7.4 fr...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Corn and Beans Bravely Higher Ahead of the WASDE

The U.S. government reopened today and the data fog partially lifted in Washington. However, many economic reports will first require time to repopulate their databases. USDA made the decision to publish the November WASDE tomorrow ahead of the agreement to reopen the government and traders spe...

soy-oilseeds

Pre-WASDE Cash Market Soybean Signals

Writing about what the markets say will happen the day before a major USDA report is always a risky - but still useful - endeavor. This year, the recent U.S. government shutdown and U.S.-China trade war/trade deal intensify these dynamics of risk and worthiness. The shutdown, of course, by remo...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.415/bushel, up $0.0625 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Wheat closed at $5.3575/bushel, down $0.0025 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $11.47/bushel, up $0.1325 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $328.4/short ton, up $7.4 fr...

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Livestock Roundup: Making Sense of Cattle Markets

The first bit of news is the government shutdown has ended. The House voted 222 to 209 to pass the spending package that will lead to the government re-opening through 30 January. Six Democrats voted “yes”, and two Republicans voted “no” on an otherwise party line vote...

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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.

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