Markets are volatile due to the large number of economic cross-currents. The WTO unsurprisingly announced that global trade would decline in 2023. The combination of rising interest rates, inflating prices, energy shortages and reshoring efforts add to the burdens. OPEC+ will cut oil production by 2 billion barrels/day just as Europe tries to wean itself off of Russian gas. Some say the current combination of factors will lead to stagflation. Now the White House is said to be considering an export ban on gasoline. This will prove more globally controversial than its push for tax credits limited to domestic EV output. Domestically, it will lower gasoline prices but concurrently reduce the incentive for production. Longer term, refiner invest...
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.