Funds are still short a record amount of wheat futures. Without much other bad news left to throw at the wheat market, a few positive stories have apparently started to make some of the fund shorts a bit nervous.This week's USDA reports were important because they set the initial tone or benchmark numbers for the next marketing year. There was nothing bullish in the numbers, as Bob Kohlmeyer pointed out in his analysis the day that the reports were released, as well as nothing really bearish for corn or wheat. The soybean numbers are clearly bearish, but they have been for several months, and the market has continued to trade in a relatively narrow range. We still expect that will widen to the downside in the next 30-45 days. Planting progr...
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.