General Comments China and weather were the bearish market factors today. Markets were very firm early in the overnight session, but that tone changed when China reported first quarter GDP was 8.1 percent compared to 8.9 percent in the last quarter of 2011. That prompted some selling at the tail-end of the night session, and that selling ballooned in the first 20 minutes of today's session. China's perceived poor first quarter performance also resulted in lower energy markets, a stronger dollar and collapsing financial markets. U.S. financial markets gave back a big chunk of yesterday's gains. Some of that was attributed to more Eurozone worries -- this time Spain -- plus talk that any hope of another quantitative easing package by the F...
Key Takeaways: President Trump announced $8 billion in additional agricultural assistance through the Harvest Fuel Relief Program, as USDA projects farm fuel and oil expenses will increase 28.8 percent in 2026. The package follows $12 billion in earlier relief, while government farm payments w...
Key Takeaways: A student group from the University of Chicago is protesting to bring back onion futures trading. Trading in onion futures was banned in 1958 following a spectacular bout of market manipulation that resulted in a corner of the physical market. The ban on onion futures led t...
Beef packer margins deteriorated to $141/head last week, down $55 from the prior week as fed cattle prices strengthened while the Choice cutout remained nearly unchanged. The cutout held near $373/cwt while fed cattle prices climbed $4/cwt to $224/cwt, narrowing processor profits. Despite the d...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.