World Perspectives
feed-grains farm-inputs softs

Input Costs – Natural Gas

While grains were 19 percent lower on the S&P Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI), energy was down 41 percent. However, there may be a silver lining to this commodity cloud going into 2016.Commodities as an asset class experienced another bear year in 2015 with all six sectors (precious metals, base metals, energy, grains, soft commodities and meats) down on the year, although softs made gains in the fourth quarter (Q4). The composite index moved up 12.64 percent in Q4 to almost break even on the year at an annual drop of only 0.74 percent. Some supply shocks helped frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ) futures appreciate 32.64 percent during the last quarter. Sugar rallied as well from just over 10 cents/pound in late summer to high...

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Greenland Tweets Sink Macroeconomic Markets, CBOT and Ags Follow

The CBOT started off in risk-off mode Tuesday as rising U.S./EU tensions and odd dynamics in global macroeconomic markets (the rally in Japanese bond yields, in particular) unnerved investors.  The biggest driver of the risk-off trade was President Trump’s continued – and appar...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Middle East, Mediterranean, and Africa Regional Analysis

Mediterranean/Middle East/North Africa/Africa – MEA Region Iraq is reported to be facing the “driest year in modern history” due to drought and greatly reduced water flow in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers through Turkey. Forecasters say the 2025/26 wheat crop could be down by...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.2375/bushel, down $0.01 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.1025/bushel, down $0.0775 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soybeans closed at $10.53/bushel, down $0.0475 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soymeal closed at $291.6/short ton, up $1.6...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Greenland Tweets Sink Macroeconomic Markets, CBOT and Ags Follow

The CBOT started off in risk-off mode Tuesday as rising U.S./EU tensions and odd dynamics in global macroeconomic markets (the rally in Japanese bond yields, in particular) unnerved investors.  The biggest driver of the risk-off trade was President Trump’s continued – and appar...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Middle East, Mediterranean, and Africa Regional Analysis

Mediterranean/Middle East/North Africa/Africa – MEA Region Iraq is reported to be facing the “driest year in modern history” due to drought and greatly reduced water flow in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers through Turkey. Forecasters say the 2025/26 wheat crop could be down by...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.2375/bushel, down $0.01 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.1025/bushel, down $0.0775 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soybeans closed at $10.53/bushel, down $0.0475 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soymeal closed at $291.6/short ton, up $1.6...

Greenland: More Tariffs on 1 February

Greenland is heating up in the latest news, and not due to global warming, but rather rising security concerns. President Trump said of Greenland, the semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been telling Denmark for 20 years that “you h...

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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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