Commodity markets received an early bullish surprise after the Saudi-led OPEC+ announced it would cut crude oil output 1.2 million barrels/day starting in May and lasting through the end of 2023. Analysts are speculating the move is intended to push prices back to the $100/barrel mark. The news was supportive for energy complex futures and, in turn, ethanol and soyoil due to their connections to energy markets. CBOT traders also continued to react to the implications of USDA’s Friday reports with soybeans pushing higher still on thoughts that ending stocks could fall another 20 Mbu from the already tight 210 Mbu forecast. Wheat futures pushed higher in early trade but gave up most or all those gains amid profit taking and some physica...
What You Need to Know Today: There has already been a strong run of flash soybean sales announcements in recent weeks, but more than 1.4 MMT reported this morning is an exceptionally large single-day total with major implications for the market. If the sales to China and unknown destinations w...
On Friday, at 6:57 AM, President Donald Trump announced, via a social media post, a 90-day window during which up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef could be imported outside of tariff-rate quotas—a move aimed at bringing down costs for American consumers. This is the secon...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.