The term for today’s market action is “mixed,” in several different ways, and is probably why volume was lower. The pushing and shoving are from two main directions: weather, of course; and China purchases, or not. The U.S. crop weather forecast is neutral at best and likely bearish. It is mixed in Europe and elsewhere. China is going to meet its Phase One purchasing agreement according to USTR Lighthizer, and there have been some big sales recently, but are there also just a bunch of rumors? WPI’s Jody Lefcourt says that yesterday’s quick break and recovery trade indicates possible uncovered buyers getting their recent business on the books. President Trump is charged by his former national security ad...
What You Need to Know Today: Russia rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, including a proposal to halt attacks on civilian shipping that could help restore grain flows from Ukrainian ports. Tyson Foods announced plans to permanently close its Joslin, Illinois, beef processing facili...
The big news in the cattle markets yesterday was Tyson Foods’ move to close two more beef plants. One of them, the Joslin, Illinois, plant was shuttered immediately after the announcement. The other, in Eagle Mountain, Utah, is a case-ready plant that does not slaughter cattle. Tyson also...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday. In July, the CPI rose 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, and rose 3.4 percent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy, or the “core” infla...
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.