The CBOT ended the week mixed on lackluster volume with encouraging near-term demand developments being outweighed by the May WASDE’s large supply forecasts. Soyoil led the soy complex higher but the NOPA report exerted bearish pressure on soymeal. Wheat futures turned lower under continued fund selling while corn found modest support on news that some ethanol plants will reopen in the coming week. Concerns about U.S.-China trade relations are growing as rhetoric between Washington and Beijing heats up. This morning, the Trump Administration said it would block shipments of semiconductors from Chinese company Huawei, which will likely not sit well with Chinese leaders and could undermine China’s commitment to the Phase One deal...
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.