According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the trade deficit in goods and services grew slightly to $68.2 billion in December 2020. U.S. exports actually increased, but imports grew faster. The bigger issue is that both exports and imports grew, which means economic activity grew. The U.S. economy and the global economy are starting to return to normal. While two-way trade was down 1.7 percent in January in dollar terms, it was up 1.1 percent over December. Two-way trade is the real measure of economic growth on the trade front. On the topic of imports, the total value of imports in January stood at 5.7 percent greater than pre-COVID February 2020, and 3.2 percent more than January 2020. That’s a sign that the U.S. economy is growing and t...
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.