Markets of nearly every type were lower in quiet holiday trading. Wheat tried to resist the downside pressure in corn and soybeans and was mostly successful, finishing the day with just small losses. General Comments Markets of nearly every type were lower in quiet holiday trading. A big part of the world was still on holiday today with London and Canadian financial markets closed for Boxing Day. Financial markets were still worried about weaker oil prices. Crude oil was down just over $1 a barrel today. Remember when the world was begging for cheap energy? Now seems to be the major bearish input. Some rain in Brazil pressured the soy complex last night and today, and much more is in its extended forecast for the week after the New Year’s...
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.