A friend, whose two passions in life, aside from his family, are commodity futures markets and the theater, recently likened the corn and wheat markets to the famous play "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett. In that play two homeless characters wait endlessly for someone named Godot to show up, but he never does. As my friend put it, the export-obsessed CME corn and wheat markets both have been waiting endlessly for a surge in U.S. export sales volume that has not shown up -- at least so far.Given that the Beckett play is filled with philosophical, religious, political and psychological elements over which critics have long debated, using it as an analogy for the current wheat and corn markets may be a stretch. Nevertheless, we can see...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.