Every major CBOT/CME agricultural futures contract posted significant losses in a day dominated by “risk off” trade. Over the weekend, news broke that coronavirus COVID-19 outbreaks are worsening in South Korea, Italy, and Iran and the World Health Organization this morning reported that new cases were reported in Kuwait. Saudi Arabia said at the G20 meeting that it expected the spreading virus to have a significant negative impact on global economic growth. All that created expectations that the Dow would open 700+ points lower, which subsequently created pressure on CBOT markets. The World Health Organization reported today that 79,331 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed to date, with 715 new cases reported in the pas...
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
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.