Consumer spending was unusually strong as it surged 0.9 percent in March, the largest gain since 2005 with the exception of one month in 2009.
The release this week of puny GDP growth was shrugged off by most of the market. Anticipation of low growth was built into expectations because of the extremely cold and snowy winter that disrupted a great deal of economic activity. The economy grew at a rate of 0.1 percent. Weakness was across the board except for consumer spending. Looking deeper into the numbers by singling out key factors like consumer spending, business investment and home building, the first quarter rate of growth hit 1.9 percent in annual terms. Those categories are likewise up 2.6 percent in the past year and well within t...
What You Need to Know Today: U.S. weather is getting more attention this week as conditions vary greatly across the western, central, and eastern corn belts, with the different regions battling dryness and too much rain simultaneously. The ProFarmer Crop Tour began today in Indiana and Nebrask...
Unlike the 2022 fertilizer shock, today’s disruption is rooted less in rerouted trade flows and more in damaged production capacity, raw material constraints and uncertain recovery timelines. That makes this a longer-duration risk for U.S. agricultural producers and retailers who must sec...
