Yesterday’s Crop Conditions report featured worse-than-expected declines and sparked an overnight and early morning rally in CBOT futures Tuesday. Corn, wheat, and soybeans all jumped out to strong gains early in the day, but those gains faded through the afternoon for corn and wheat, with the latter commodity ending mostly lower for the day. Funds are still not interested in chasing rallies after having just exited a massive long position and with the general trend of world grain markets being that of moving towards more ample supplies. Production and yield risks certainly exist here in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere, but the situation is nowhere near as tight as it once was. Consequently, funds and commercials seem to be content st...
WPI recently completed an expansion of our methodology for estimating and forecasting U.S. and global soybean crushing margins. The new approach incorporates the energy market’s expanding influence on the oilseed sector and the structural changes in global biofuel demand. This report is i...
Reflect for a moment on what you eat. There is a lot of advice out there in the ether about what you should eat, but really, what do you currently eat and how much? The good people at the USDA have some data for you, to help you answer that question. USDA says that we eat quite a bit of meat. L...
Key Market Insights Macros: Inflation isn’t cooling — it’s moving higher again. March PCE inflation (Personal Consumption Expenditures index — the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation) rose 0.7 percent month-over-month, pushing the annual rate to 3.5 percent, the h...
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.