It was all green at the open except for cattle and that was pretty much the day. It is a trifecta, the perfect storm, when droughty weather threatens, there is strong export demand and the technicals are motivating. Volume today was above average for everything but live cattle and SRW wheat. Still, there could be some profit-taking tomorrow ahead of the weekend, though no one will want to go completely short. Spending the last two weeks getting out of record short positions in corn has no doubt cost the funds a lot of money. That was offset by having been long in soybeans for a long time. The near-daily soybean sales look to continue and are a major driving force in the pits. But the market may also be both technically and fundamentally ov...
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.