CME corn and soybean prices rebounded today with the December corn contract price back over $4/bushel but November soybeans still under the $10 threshold at $9.76/bushel. Supplies of Brazilian and Ukrainian corn are currently priced at a premium and moving higher. China is capitalizing on cheap U.S. soybean prices by stocking up. The question is where are U.S. corn and soybean prices appropriately priced? The answer is where the market pegs it, though that sounds overly simplistic. A general rule of thumb is to look at the stocks to use ratio (STU). It is a factor built into most price forecasting models, even though it has its weaknesses. For example, U.S. carryover levels have tightened over time, especially since the governm...
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.
What You Need to Know Today: Markets got a surprise with a corn yield of 181.2 bushels/acre in the October WASDE, above the average estimate of 177.6 bushels/acre and up from USDA’s September estimate of 178.5 bushels/acre. Although stronger demand is expected to absorb some of the addit...
Key Takeaways: On Friday afternoon, President Trump announced that Russia will “immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel” to the United States. The deal, typical of this administration, is light on details but promises an additional 500,000 tons in November and 1 m...
The USDA has lowered its 2026 red meat production forecasts slightly while forecasting a slight increase in broiler production. Beef is now projected at 24.802 billion pounds, 75 million pounds less than in September. Cow slaughter is expected to be up; however, this will be offset by lower ste...