General Comments The Chinese government cut its one-year interest rate 0.25 percent for the first time in nearly four years in what is seen as a serious effort to stimulate sagging economic growth. Commodity and equity markets welcomed the news and nearly all were up in overnight trading. And after Europe opened, Spain successfully sold about $2.6 billion of medium- and long-term notes. Ten-year notes went at 6.04 percent, which is higher than the last auction but well below last week's resale market that was trading near 6.7 percent. Otherwise, Europe appears to be marking time until the Greek parliamentary election on 17 June and the EU summit on 18-19 June.Market watchers hoped for something specific or definitive from Fed Chairman Be...
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
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.