Producer price inflation (PPI) ended 2024 up 0.2 percent in December. That is a modest gain and was below pre-report expectations. Nonetheless, the PPI was 3.3 higher than a year ago, and substantially higher than the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target. That stickiness trend will keep inflation squarely in the radar of the Fed’s focus in 2025. Moreover, as WPI reported on 6 January, the “Trump agenda of tariffs and immigration action which could reduce labor supply, and tax cuts all have the potential to be inflationary.” This is particularly noteworthy as commodity and goods prices were up 0.6 percent in December, and services were flat. 01142025dj.png 34.57 KBThe increase in the PPI in December was led by energy prices, which jumped...
What You Need to Know Today: Excitement over China’s agreement to purchase $17 billion of U.S. ag commodities subsided, as traders are cautious amid the yet-unspecified allocation of those purchases. Monday’s Crop Progress report did not significantly change the narrative for corn...
There has been more analysis of the Trump-Xi meeting last week than decades worth of papers written on the fall of Rome and the assassination of JFK. Optimists highlight the pageantry and showmanship; pessimists complain nothing major was accomplished. The divergence of the official assessments...
As WPI reported, Presidents Trump and Xi held a bilateral summit last week (World Perspectives), the first since 2017, with some uncertainty over the outcome, though Trump commented on some “fantastic” trade deals. Over the weekend, more information was released on those agreements,...
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.