The CBOT was volatile (relative to recent history, at least) today, with futures stronger at the open amid hopes of progress from U.S.-Sino trade talks. Russian wheat values that were higher over the weekend helped support the wheat market at the open as well. At midday, however, bears found ammunition in a Financial Times report that claimed the U.S. turned down an offer from China regarding “preparatory trade talks”. The market saw that as negative news regarding the possibility of a long-term solution and promptly sold off. Soybeans (expectedly) were the losers from this news and the announcement sent the contract to double-digit losses soon after. The U.S. stock markets were unhappy with the news as well. The US...
What You Need to Know Today: Russia rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, including a proposal to halt attacks on civilian shipping that could help restore grain flows from Ukrainian ports. Tyson Foods announced plans to permanently close its Joslin, Illinois, beef processing facili...
The big news in the cattle markets yesterday was Tyson Foods’ move to close two more beef plants. One of them, the Joslin, Illinois, plant was shuttered immediately after the announcement. The other, in Eagle Mountain, Utah, is a case-ready plant that does not slaughter cattle. Tyson also...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday. In July, the CPI rose 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, and rose 3.4 percent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy, or the “core” infla...
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.