Key Market Developments Macros & Energy:  Outside markets continue to trade in a tug-of-war between escalation and de-escalation — and crud...

War Impacts May soybeans are now within a penny of their value two weeks ago, and May corn is back up to within half a percent of its price at that time. T...

Russian Grain Markets: 6-10 April 2026 During the week in review, the Russian grains market was volatile. Domestic sentiment remained bullish, supporting a...

May 26 Corn closed at $4.43/bushel, up $0.0275 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.92/bushel, up $0.0975 from yesterday's close. ...

The CBOT received several pieces of key fundamental information on Tuesday, including updated production figures from CONAB, the results of the USDA’...

Soybeans Dalien soybean futures and spot prices have defied seasonal trends since October 2025. They have been rising due to structural shortages of high-p...

The House and Senate are returning from their two-week Easter recess period with a busy agenda ahead. While the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutd...

Mediterranean/Middle East/North Africa/Africa – MEA Region Syria is reported to be the main destination for Russia’s shipments of Ukraine grain...

Beef packer margins deteriorated further last week to -$85/head, down from -$17/head the prior week, as continued strength in fed cattle prices again outpa...

May 26 Corn closed at $4.4025/bushel, down $0.0075 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.8225/bushel, up $0.1125 from yesterday's close.&...

Politics are once again the tail wagging the dog in commodity markets. U.S. negotiations with Iran fell apart (again) over the weekend after Iran refused t...

Commodity markets were mixed today, while Wall Street traded higher after President Trump said the Iranians still want to negotiate after he closed the Str...

JBS USA announced on Sunday that it has reached a new collective bargaining agreement with UFCW Local 7, allowing the Greeley beef production facility to r...

CORN With a rainy start to April and excess moisture across much of Argentina’s agricultural region, the corn harvest has slowed, advancing just 2 pe...

Friday’s CFTC report showed funds paring back their net long position across the major ag futures contracts, ending a ten-week streak of net buying...

May 26 Corn closed at $4.41/bushel, down $0.03 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.71/bushel, down $0.035 from yesterday's close. ...

WPI has officially launched Transportation Perspectives as a standalone weekly report separate from our Ag Perspectives articles and analysis. Current Ag P...

There are so many conflicting narratives between war and peace, rain and drought, hopes and fears, that it was a mixed day of trading on Friday, and a mixe...

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the March Consumer Price Index (CPI) today, showing that it rose 0.9 percent, seasonally adjusted, month over...

Buried in the many mountains of USDA data last week was the March 2026 Prospective Plantings report. There you will find one specific figure among the many...

WPI has officially launched Transportation Perspectives as a standalone weekly report separate from our Ag Perspectives articles and an...

May 26 Corn closed at $4.44/bushel, down $0.0325 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.745/bushel, down $0.0575 from yesterday's close.&n...

Geopolitics has proven that it beats weather as a volatility driver, but agricultural markets and financials returned to fundamentals today. The truce/non-...

USDA released the April WASDE today with new 2026 meat production forecasts, changed from the March release. Beef is now projected at 25.79 billion pounds...

Ethanol Ethanol production margins continue to experience a counter-seasonal surge, with the energy market rally driving the bulk of the move. Prior to the...

Once again, Trump, Iran, and the Middle East were the hub around which the CBOT trade revolved on Wednesday. Late Tuesday, the U.S. agreed to a two-week ce...

Policy Deference The bilateral trade balance is a narrow way to look at the relative relationship between two countries. The government of Mexican Presiden...

Regional News  Egypt is increasingly finding itself caught between Russia and Ukraine, in a battle for supplying its domestic wheat markets. Egypt, th...

Russian Grain Markets: 30 March - 3 April 2026 Market overview The Russian grains market remained broadly stable during the week, with a slightly firmer un...

May 26 Corn closed at $4.4725/bushel, down $0.0175 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.8025/bushel, down $0.1775 from yesterday's close...

May 26 Corn closed at $4.49/bushel, down $0.05 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.98/bushel, up $0.0275 from yesterday's close. ...

Key Market Developments Macro/Geopolitics:  Markets are staring down a deadline tonight as President Donald Trump pushes Iran to reopen the Strait of...

Hormuz Strategy China has been assisting Iran under a 25-year strategic agreement that has 90 percent of Iranian crude going to the Middle Kingdom. Iran is...

Mexico’s 2025/26 sugar production is estimated to be 5.024 million MT, reflecting about a 6 percent increase from 4.7 million MT after the past two y...

Mediterranean/Middle East/North Africa/Africa – MEA Region Egypt has said that it will no longer import any shipments of grain exported by Russia fro...

Beef packer margins reversed sharply to -$17/head from $120/head the prior week, as rising fed cattle prices more than offset a modest decline in the Choic...

The CBOT markets were surprisingly insulated from a jump in crude oil that started the week. Crude oil futures rallied to $115/brl - their highest levels s...

Under the theory of economies of scale, the size of farms, like that of all industries, should increase over time due to improvements in productivity. Farm...

May 26 Corn closed at $4.54/bushel, up $0.0175 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.9525/bushel, down $0.03 from yesterday's close. ...

Argentina Corn Argentina’s corn harvest continued to advance nationwide, gaining 3.8 percentage points on the week to reach 19 percent of planted are...

President Trump unveiled his FY2027 budget proposal on Friday. The President’s budget, which is largely for positioning purposes, poses a starting po...

WPI has officially launched Transportation Perspectives as a standalone weekly report separate from our Ag Perspectives articles and an...

There were a lot of moving parts on the last trading day of the holiday-shortened week, but liquidation and profit-taking may have been the strongest. A pr...

Tomorrow, 2 April, is a holiday for the CBOT/CME markets in observance of Good Friday. Please note that our office will also be closed. The next Ag Perspec...

Through the week ending 21 March, U.S. broiler production remains well above year-ago levels, with total headcount surpassing 2.04 billion, a 3.63 percent...

WPI has officially launched Transportation Perspectives as a standalone weekly report separate from our Ag Perspectives articles and analysis. Current Ag P...

May 26 Corn closed at $4.5225/bushel, down $0.02 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.9825/bushel, up $0.0075 from yesterday's close.&nb...

May 26 Corn closed at $4.5425/bushel, down $0.035 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.975/bushel, down $0.1875 from yesterday's close.&...

Key Market Developments Macro: Tension Without Direction Markets are trading the tension between escalation and resolution — and neither side has co...

AI Disaster Opponents of artificial intelligence, like Senator Bernie Sanders (S-Vermont), warn that the technology risks the end of the human race. So-cal...

Russian Grain Markets: 23–27 March 2026 The Russian grains market was stable to slightly firmer during the week. Export activity and port trading rem...

May 26 Corn closed at $4.5775/bushel, up $0.02 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $6.1625/bushel, up $0.0925 from yesterday's close. ...

Except for lean hog futures, the CBOT and CME markets were higher on Tuesday in a combination of bullish factors. The day’s strength started after th...

Congress is in recess this week ahead of the Easter and Passover holidays, with much yet to do, including ending a partial shutdown and considering the &ld...

SPS Barriers India’s rice exports to China have been accelerating, but Beijing recently rejected three shipments of non-Basmati rice, citing genetica...

Mediterranean/Middle East/North Africa/Africa – MEA Region Iraq’s 2026 wheat imports are seen increasing by about 8.3 percent to 2.4 million MT...

The attached PDF offers graphical depiction and analysis of the latest USDA Grain Stocks data for key commodities. The data is, of course, taken from the q...

Beef packer margins eased slightly to $119/head, declining $7/head week over week as a modest softening in the cutout combined with a small increase in liv...

 May 26 Corn closed at $4.5575/bushel, down $0.0625 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $6.07/bushel, up $0.02 from yesterday's close...

The CBOT took a bit of a breather on Monday as traders waited for the upcoming Prospective Plantings and Grain Stocks reports, which the USDA will issue Tu...

Forlorn or Failure The spin from the WTO on the organization’s recent MC14 meetings was that a lot of decisions were adopted, progress was made, and...

The 2026 USDA Prospective Plantings Report is scheduled for release tomorrow. The report surveys farmer planting intentions for major crops, including corn...

Argentina Corn Argentina’s corn harvest continues to advance at the national level. After a weekly gain of 2.2 percentage points, harvest has reached...

Friday’s CFTC report showed funds expanding long positions across the major ag futures contracts for the tenth straight week. Funds added 67,000 cont...

Thursday marked the worst day for stocks in weeks despite word on the street to “buy,” since valuations have once again become attractive. But...

The current rally in wheat futures is widely known to be driven by fund buying in response to the conflict in the Middle East. Part of the price gains has...

May 26 Corn closed at $4.62/bushel, down $0.05 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $6.05/bushel, up $0 from yesterday's close.  May 2...

Previously, on 24 March, WPI wrote about fertilizer consolidation and an effort by Majority Leader John Thune to introduce mandatory price reporting for fe...

President Trump’s announcement on Monday this week that the U.S. would postpone any attacks on Iranian energy facilities for five days increased hope...

Export Sales and Shipments for March 13-19, 2026.  Wheat: Net sales of 397,200 metric tons (MT) for 2025/2026 were up noticeably from the previous wee...

May 26 Corn closed at $4.67/bushel, down $0.0025 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $6.05/bushel, up $0.0725 from yesterday's close. ...

War-related higher energies are a mixed story for ags. They could stymie economic growth and thus demand, but they open the door for better biofuel sales...

Beef prices dropped sharply this week, with the Choice cutout down about $11/cwt in the past six trading days. The move unnerved live cattle futures on Wed...

USDA released its quarterly hogs and pigs report today. The inventory of all hogs and pigs on 1 March was 74.3 million head, up slightly from March 2025 bu...

President Trump’s announcement on Monday this week that the U.S. would postpone any attacks on Iranian energy facilities for five days increased hope...

May 26 Corn closed at $4.6725/bushel, up $0.0475 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.9775/bushel, up $0.0775 from yesterday's close.&nb...

Key Market Developments Macro: Playing or Trading “Truth or Dare” We’ve entered the “truth or dare” phase of this market &md...

Cow-calf margins hit all-time record highs in 2025 as the industry benefited from the downstream impacts of record-breaking beef demand and the smallest be...

Iran War Impacts Confidence in the economy is often tied to partisan politics, with Democrats seeing green when they control the White House, and Republica...

Russian Grain Markets: 16–20 March 2026 During the second week of February, the Russian grains market showed a sharp divergence between domestic and...

May 26 Corn closed at $4.625/bushel, up $0.03 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.9/bushel, up $0.0225 from yesterday's close.  Ma...

Tuesday’s energy markets took back about half of Monday’s losses as tensions in the Arab Gulf flared again, despite recent announcements of dip...

Balanced Trade Bilateral trade in both directions between the U.S. and China has slowed, but Chinese Premier Li Qiang told last week’s meeting of the...

The war in Iran has brought the four-year simmering focus on fertilizer prices to a quick boil.  Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) in...