The Market It was a topsy turvy week from the standpoint that the trend is down, speculators are betting on lower values, increasing their net short positions in the week up to 27 February by 11 percent to 178,501 contracts. And yet there were price gains this week. Soymeal contracts have been hitting new lows, but that has been rewarded with huge export sales. The intended delivery of soybeans on 502 March contracts was thought to be bearish, but then Bunge gobbled up 70 percent of them proving there is still commercial demand. Soyoil should have gotten a boost on Friday when the EPA and USDA leaders appeared before the giant Commodity Classic meeting. The expectation was that they’d announce a Sustainable Aviation Fuel requirement...
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.