Last week, we reported on the historically low inventory of diesel fuel and how a big cause of that draw down is the backwardated market for distillate fuel oil. There’s demand for immediate delivery, and not much price incentive to build inventories. High energy prices are now being driven by demand against low supplies and are a growing concern for the economy, as well as a political concern for the Administration. Yesterday, President Biden threatened refiners with a windfall profits tax; he said he’d work with Congress to tax “excess profits” because “it’s time for these companies to stop war profiteering” from the Russia-Ukraine war. Moreover, other measures are on the table like an export ban...
What You Need to Know Today: There has already been a strong run of flash soybean sales announcements in recent weeks, but more than 1.4 MMT reported this morning is an exceptionally large single-day total with major implications for the market. If the sales to China and unknown destinations w...
On Friday, at 6:57 AM, President Donald Trump announced, via a social media post, a 90-day window during which up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef could be imported outside of tariff-rate quotas—a move aimed at bringing down costs for American consumers. This is the secon...
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.