General Comments The Federal Reserve's FOMC finished its March meeting today by issuing some guardedly optimistic comments about the U.S. economy. It noted signs of improvement but still voiced concerns about high unemployment. It suggested that outside pressures had lessened. Energy costs were likely to increase the rate of inflation "temporarily," but the annualized rate likely would stay in an acceptable range. It reiterated its intention to keep interest rates "exceptionally low" into 2014 and gave no clues about another round of quantitative easing, but that option was left on the table.Financial markets liked the Fed's statement. The dollar gained, as did the stock market. The Dow closed up 218 points at 13,178 points, its highest...
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.