Janet Yellen’s final meeting as Fed chair ended today with the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) deciding to leave the interest rate unchanged, which had been universally expected. The accompanying statement indicated the Fed now expects inflation will rise close to its 2 percent target by year’s end rather than stay below as implied by its previous statement. Overall, the Fed’s latest assessment of the U.S. economy and labor market was upbeat, appearing to pave the way for another rate increase at its March meeting. New Fed chair Jerome Powell will preside over that meeting, and he is not expected to deviate much from the policies Ms. Yellen supported. After relatively stout rallies in the wheat, soybean and soymeal m...
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
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.