Trade at the end of the Christmas week was defined by strong soyoil and wheat values while soybeans and meal turned lower. Corn and soybeans are near the top end of their fundamentally justifiable trading ranges (at least based on current expectations of supply/demand), and technical resistance/profit taking in soybeans pushed that market lower. Funds are certainly supporting the soyoil and wheat markets but long interest in corn and soybeans remains tepid. Overall, however, the markets remain well-bid and there seems to be a growing expectation that 2020 demand for ag commodities will be strong and above 2019 levels. The weekly Export Sales report showed disappointing sales and exports for corn, continuing the theme of the MY 2019/2...
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: 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...