Milling Wheat Large supplies and strong exports of wheat from the Black Sea and Russia continue to cap upside potential for wheat. U.S. and EU markets rallied last week until late in the week, when they hit a combination of technical pressure and increased competition from the Black Sea. Chicago futures rallied to their highest levels since December last week, with winter wheat and winterkill concerns in the U.S., and South American heat stress, driving the rally. A sharply weaker U.S. dollar also boosted futures while weighing on UK and EU futures. EU wheat futures are recovering from last week’s pressure (brought on by the strong euro and large old-crop stocks, with export forecasts seemingly revised lower each wee...
What You Need to Know Today: Iran says its definition of the Strait of Hormuz is now a “vast operation area” that stretches from Jask to Siri Island. The White House said President Trump did not sign a suspension of the TRQs on beef imports but is “finalizing potential...
If the media headlines and Trump critics are to be believed, President Trump is headed to Beijing this Thursday in a weakened position. China is in control, it has the upper hand, and expectations are very low. These are the same critics that argue against overly simplistic zero-sum analyses in...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.