General Comments Today saw a major effort by traders to shed risks in a wide variety of markets. In fact, it is hard to find a commodity market, financial market or equity market that closed higher today. Selling was broad-based across all asset classes. Grains and the soy complex closed lower although soybean futures were in positive territory during much of the day. Livestock futures fell. Coffee, sugar and cocoa prices dropped, as did metals prices.Energy prices were particularly weak as weekly U.S. supplies of crude oil were much larger than expected. NYMEX WTI lost $1.92 to finish at $105.41, and Brent dropped $1.44 as the U.S., France and Britain discussed the possibility of a coordinated release of strategic oil reserves. In fairn...
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.