World Perspectives

October Jobs Report Tepid

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the October jobs report this morning.  Total nonfarm payroll employment was essentially unchanged in October (+12,000), and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent.  The pre-report consensus was for an additional 100,000 payroll jobs.  The October report was, excluding 2020, which was the first year of COVID, the smallest gain for any month since early 2019. As WPI noted on 29 October, the September payroll report had some bullish topline numbers, but digging deeper into the report showed some signs of potential concern.   Despite job growth (of 254,000 new jobs), the total hours worked slipped downward in September, to an average of 34.2-hour work week.&...

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Happy New Year!

The WPI team extends our best wishes to you and your families for a healthy and happy New Year. Thank you for your faithful readership, we are looking forward to serving you in 2026!  Please note that our next report will be issued on Friday, 2 January as the U.S. markets are closed for th...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

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Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.4025/bushel, down $0.0025 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.07/bushel, down $0.0375 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soybeans closed at $10.475/bushel, down $0.1475 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soymeal closed at $299.4/short ton, down $...

Happy New Year!

The WPI team extends our best wishes to you and your families for a healthy and happy New Year. Thank you for your faithful readership, we are looking forward to serving you in 2026!  Please note that our next report will be issued on Friday, 2 January as the U.S. markets are closed for th...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: January WASDE is the Future

The pre-holiday risk-off, profit-taking mode continued on the last trading day of 2025. Traders closed out the calendar year with the expected low-level enthusiasm. Positions were tidied up with few fresh inputs as the past is the past and the future is now the USDA January WASDE report. ...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.4025/bushel, down $0.0025 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.07/bushel, down $0.0375 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soybeans closed at $10.475/bushel, down $0.1475 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soymeal closed at $299.4/short ton, down $...

livestock

Beef and Pork Past, Present and Future

USDA’s November slaughter data helps decode some of the outlook for 2026. There are the known knowns - cattle and hog numbers are down, weights are up, and the breeding inventory for cattle is growing while for hogs it remains constant. But stabilized dairy cow slaughter, lower sow slaugh...

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From WPI Consulting

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.

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