Ethanol use is up, but so are COVID-19 cases in several U.S. states and cities. Wall Street plunged on Thursday envisioning a renewed lockdown on the economy, but Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin pushed back saying, “we can’t shut down the economy again.” Echoing that view, various government officials at the state level concerned about the loss of jobs also rejected any new lockdowns. Officials are arguing that lockdowns are too damaging and that they are now better prepared for handling the virus. This is good news for ethanol and thus corn demand. At this juncture, Americans do not want to take public transportation and they don’t want to get on airplanes. Highways are rapidly resuming congestion. There are incre...
What You Need to Know Today: President Trump claimed the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was over, as both sides accused one another of violating the terms of the agreement. Commercial vessels are increasingly steering clear of the Strait of Hormuz as security risks escalate following Iran...
Key Takeaways: The CME Group is launching new 90 percent Lean Beef and 50 percent Lean Beef futures and options contracts in July. There are five key factors that must be present in physical markets and futures contract specifications for futures contracts to become successful. The two l...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.