Trading in the CME's new Black Sea wheat futures contract began yesterday, 6 June. With this contract, CME aims to attract hedging volume from Black Sea regional exporters and users of wheat from the region. If the contract can demonstrate commercial utility, the hope is that it will attract speculative volume as well plus volume from spreaders playing Black Sea wheat futures against the CME's futures contract for SRW or perhaps Paris wheat futures. The first day's trading volume was not very auspicious. Reportedly, only a few contracts were traded, apparently not enough to be included in CME's report of daily trading volume and open interest.Trading is entirely electronic via CME's Globex platform. Trading hours are from 1:00 a.m. to 1:1...
Key Takeaways: President Trump announced $8 billion in additional agricultural assistance through the Harvest Fuel Relief Program, as USDA projects farm fuel and oil expenses will increase 28.8 percent in 2026. The package follows $12 billion in earlier relief, while government farm payments w...
Key Takeaways: A student group from the University of Chicago is protesting to bring back onion futures trading. Trading in onion futures was banned in 1958 following a spectacular bout of market manipulation that resulted in a corner of the physical market. The ban on onion futures led t...
Beef packer margins deteriorated to $141/head last week, down $55 from the prior week as fed cattle prices strengthened while the Choice cutout remained nearly unchanged. The cutout held near $373/cwt while fed cattle prices climbed $4/cwt to $224/cwt, narrowing processor profits. Despite the d...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.