General Comments Markets were weak early in the evening session but crawled back to finish slightly higher. The impetus for the recovery was strong trade in Europe's financial markets followed by some very good economic data from the U.S. jobs market. The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent in January and 243,000 jobs were created. That payroll data pushed U.S. financial markets to better than 1 percent gains early on and the market held those gains throughout the session. The dollar was neutral today and crude oil was up nearly a dollar most of the day.The CME opened with strong gains in wheat, corn and soybeans, but wheat and corn futures were trading lower within the first minute or two of trading. Meanwhile, soybeans held t...
What You Need to Know Today: Declining crop conditions ratings and shaky results from the Pro Farmer crop tour sent grains sharply higher on Tuesday. The Pro Farmer tour in Ohio pegged the state yield at 180.18 BPA, about 5.5 BPA below the tour’s 2025 estimate. Similarly, the Pro Farmer...
Mediterranean/Middle East/North Africa/Africa – MEA Region Egypt is the largest importer of Brazilian maize in the first six months of 2026. Egypt imported about 28.4 percent of maize exports, or about 1.7 million MT. Iran was the third-largest importer at 14.5 percent, or 900,000 MT, fol...
Based on a Depression-era statute, President Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion of exports to the U.S., or about 5.2 percent of the $383 billion worth of goods the U.S. imported from Canada in 2025, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Of that total, about $39.3 billion was agricu...
From WPI Consulting
Infrastructure investment due diligence
On behalf of a Canadian oilseed processer WPI's team provided market analysis, econometric modeling and financial due diligence in support of a $24 million-dollar investment in a Ukrainian crush plant. Consistent with WPI's findings, local production to supply the plant and the facility's output have expanded exponentially since the investment. WPI has conducted parallel work on behalf of U.S., South American and European clients, both private and public, in the agri-food space.