If the presence of MIR 162 corn in Chinese soybean cargoes becomes a big problem, it could weaken exporters' abilities to fend off sales cancellations with unfavorable terms and prices. General Comments The first round of congressional testimony yesterday with Janet Yellen, the new Federal Reserve chairperson, seemed to confirm that the Fed intends to stick with its plan to reduce its buying of bonds and mortgage securities steadily month-by-month as well as keep interest rates low for many months to come. Financial markets liked her promise of consistency. U.S. stock markets rallied sharply higher yesterday, a move that was followed by Asian markets overnight. Some of the euphoria wore off today. U.S. stock indices were higher early, but...
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.