World Perspectives

Weaker Consumer Finances Darken Economic Outlook, Despite Interest Rate Cuts

The past two weeks have seen the typical influx of macroeconomic data releases, most of which helped prompt the Federal Reserve to issue its 50-bps interest rate cut on Wednesday. While the interest rate cut was initially viewed as a positive signal (lower interest rates generally increase economic activity), history suggests rate cuts can precede market corrections or recessions. This is highly dependent on other factor at play in the economy, which WPI attempts to examine here.  WPI looks at macroeconomics through three primary lenses: national-level factors, consumer income and finances, and consumer spending. The first, national-level factors, includes items such as stock market valuation, the Treasury yield curve, and the inflati...

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Soybean Spillover Rides Another Day

There was high-volume trading in soybeans again today after hitting record levels yesterday. The enthusiasm carried over to corn and soymeal as well, and there was good volume trading in soyoil contracts. There is understandable skepticism that China would pay 80 cents/bushel more for U.S. soyb...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.35/bushel, up $0.055 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.3525/bushel, up $0.085 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soybeans closed at $11.1225/bushel, up $0.2 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soymeal closed at $303.2/short ton, up $7 from yeste...

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Markets still do not know how to react to President Trump’s announcement that he has completed a trade deal with India. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer says the details are being papered, or written up, now. The deal has sparked a transatlantic war of words, with Brussels mocking...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Soybean Spillover Rides Another Day

There was high-volume trading in soybeans again today after hitting record levels yesterday. The enthusiasm carried over to corn and soymeal as well, and there was good volume trading in soyoil contracts. There is understandable skepticism that China would pay 80 cents/bushel more for U.S. soyb...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.35/bushel, up $0.055 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.3525/bushel, up $0.085 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soybeans closed at $11.1225/bushel, up $0.2 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soymeal closed at $303.2/short ton, up $7 from yeste...

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Markets still do not know how to react to President Trump’s announcement that he has completed a trade deal with India. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer says the details are being papered, or written up, now. The deal has sparked a transatlantic war of words, with Brussels mocking...

livestock

Livestock Roundup: Dairy Herd

The U.S. dairy herd in 2025 expanded at the fastest pace since the 1950s and reached a level that has not occurred since the early 1990s. Based on the USDA monthly milk production report for December, the milk cow herd totaled 9.567 million head, up from the prior month and 212,000 head from a...

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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.

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