We see today's futures market action as less important for what it did than what it did not do, and suggest that even in a bear market pattern such as we have seen recently, the market is still sensitive to signs of demand. General Comments U.S. stock indices wandered without much direction on either side of unchanged for most of the session. They were just slightly lower at the close. European stocks closed higher, ending their three-day losing streak. A private survey showed mediocre U.S. job gains in January, but the market is waiting for the government jobs report on Friday as the next yardstick to measure the U.S. economy. Stock market analysts are debating whether the recent market plunge is just a necessary correction after the big...
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...