Trade War Hyperbole Equity markets around the world traded higher today even as pundits and newspaper headlines wailed about the trade war. Beijing will get roughed up rhetorically this week in Geneva as it goes through its biennial Trade Policy Review. What should concern Chinese leaders in the bilateral scrum with the U.S. is that Trump is being fully backed in his assault on their country by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina). Graham has frequently been a critic of Trump’s on other topics and is respected on geopolitical issues. He believes the economic drain from the trade war will force China to reconsider its regional aggressions in the South Pacific as well as its Belt and Road initiative. Meanwhile, U.S. Trade Represe...
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.