Overnight trade reversed some of what occurred on Monday. Soybeans were higher, while grain prices were lower. Traders were chewing over news that U.S. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin has been discussing trade issues with high-level Chinese officials. Optimists see such contact as setting the stage for Presidents Trump and Xi to make some sort of announcement during their 30 November meeting in Buenos Aires. However, soybean futures traded mostly lower overnight and today, which is not a vote of confidence in a quick end to the trade dispute. Following yesterday’s federal holiday, the USDA/FGIS report of last week’s grain export inspections was released today. It showed 44.7 million bushels of corn, 47.8 million bushels of soybeans...
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.