There’s no shortage of issues forcing market and policy participants to keep their heads on a swivel, both near term and over the horizon. The following is a roundup of some of those issues. Federal Reserve Meeting: The Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) last meeting of 2023 is scheduled to begin tomorrow and extend though Wednesday. After the September meeting, the FOMC reported its consensus to increase the federal funds rate by another 25 basis points. Since the scorching hot GDP report for Q3 showed 4.9 percent annual growth, the market is second guessing that potential action. The current federal funds futures market shows a 98 percent probability of the Fed holding interest rates at the current level of 5.25 to...
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
Weighing in on strategic realignment
WPI’s team was retained by the governing board of a U.S. industry organization to review a decision, reached by vote, to invest significant assets into the development and management of an export trading company. WPI’s team conducted a formal review of this decision and concluded that the current level of market saturation would limit the benefits of the investment. Based on WPI’s analysis and recommended actions, the board subsequently reversed its decision and undertook a strategic planning effort to identify more impactful investments. On behalf of numerous clients, WPI has not only assisted in identifying strategic paths but also advised their implementation.