World Perspectives

Fixing the WTO; The Winner is Ag

Fixing the WTO The 13th Ministerial Conference last month in Abu Dhabi was yet another failure by the WTO. Now Singapore has proposed a retreat to discuss fundamental fixes needed to stop the long string of failures. Ultimately, the structural problems of the WTO involve one country, one vote and the necessity of consensus. Gambia with just 1.4 million people and a $2 billion economy has the same voting power as China with 1.4 billion people and $17.7 trillion in GDP. None of the other Bretton Woods institutions have this flaw. The UN is prejudiced toward the more powerful countries via the Security Council. The bias of the IMF and World Bank is toward economic size and capital contributions.  The majority involves poorer countries a...

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Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.3075/bushel, up $0.0075 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.415/bushel, up $0.055 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soybeans closed at $10.7225/bushel, down $0.0275 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soymeal closed at $296/short ton, down $1.8 f...

Transportation and Export Report - 28 January 2026

Grain transportation was thrown into confusion this week as ice and low water levels on the Mississippi River System snarled barge traffic and caused a surge in CIF grain values. On the ocean freight markets, rising bunker prices and improved demand in the Atlantic drove dry-bulk markets higher...

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Livestock Round Up: Cattle Inventory Report Preview

USDA’s semi-annual cattle report will be issued on Friday. The outlook calls for the cattle herd to be 86.4 million head, down from 86.7 million head last January, making it the seventh consecutive decline since 2019 and putting the cattle herd down 2 percent from the previous low point i...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.3075/bushel, up $0.0075 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.415/bushel, up $0.055 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soybeans closed at $10.7225/bushel, down $0.0275 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soymeal closed at $296/short ton, down $1.8 f...

Transportation and Export Report - 28 January 2026

Grain transportation was thrown into confusion this week as ice and low water levels on the Mississippi River System snarled barge traffic and caused a surge in CIF grain values. On the ocean freight markets, rising bunker prices and improved demand in the Atlantic drove dry-bulk markets higher...

livestock

Livestock Round Up: Cattle Inventory Report Preview

USDA’s semi-annual cattle report will be issued on Friday. The outlook calls for the cattle herd to be 86.4 million head, down from 86.7 million head last January, making it the seventh consecutive decline since 2019 and putting the cattle herd down 2 percent from the previous low point i...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Weak Dollar Triggers Grains Rally; Wheat Breaks Major Resistance Levels

Grains rallied across the board overnight and through Wednesday’s day session as a plunging U.S. dollar made U.S. exports more competitive. The move is especially valuable as the Brazilian soybean harvest accelerates and could keep U.S. shipments flowing. The cheaper greenback is also cri...

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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.

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