General Comments After yesterday's financial market doom and gloom, things did not look quite as bad today. Interest rates on Spanish debt dropped below 5.9 percent, and stocks staged a partial recovery from yesterday's sharp decline. The Dow gained back 90 points, or more than 40 percent, of what it lost on Tuesday. Crude oil also rebounded back above $102. NYMEX May closed at $102.70, up $1.68. Weekly stocks of crude were up, but by only about half of what had been anticipated.The catalyst was Alcoa, which posted a quarterly profit when markets had expected a loss. The fact that the big aluminum company showed a profit was taken by optimists to mean better demand for metals from car makers and other manufacturers. Alcoa was the first o...
Russian Grain Markets: 12–16 October 2026 During the week in review, the Russian grain market began recovering after an extended decline driven largely by Black Sea logistics bottlenecks, a good crop and weaker global demand in traditional Russian markets. Russia is beginning to harvest c...
What You Need to Know Today: Corn and soybeans were under heavy selling pressure as weaker (or at least as-expected) export demand runs into an accelerating harvest pace with more grain available in the spot market. Corn and soybean harvest progress remains below average across the U.S., espec...
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.