After reaching new rally highs overnight, the soybean and soymeal markets faltered soon after the day session opened. Meanwhile, good reports from the first day of the Kansas wheat crop tour and the U.S. dollar’s reversal higher were enough to restore fund managers’ faith in being short wheat futures. General Comments It is a given that when speculative funds buy and go long commodities futures, they will sell them sooner or later. Today proved to be “sooner or later.” Fund selling pummeled the corn and soy complex markets during the day session as well as wheat markets where they appeared to be re-establishing at least some of the short that they recently bought in. The overnight session provided no clue about what was to happen later du...
What You Need to Know Today: Chinese purchases of U.S. soybeans continued to accelerate, with USDA reporting another 558 KMT sold to China and 236 KMT to unknown destinations. Combined with sales announced Wednesday and Thursday, the latest purchases bring the three-day total to approximately...
As fall begins, wild migratory birds are starting their seasonal migration. That has the industry and government officials worried about the potential spread, again, of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Some members of Congress have called for the United States to be prepared for a pote...
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.