General Comments The midweek eurozone euphoria faded overnight on a downgrade of Spain's banks; financial and currency markets were back to the same old story of eurozone fears. The euro dropped 1.5 percent and the dollar was gaining 0.75 percent. Crude oil collapsed back to $82. Commodity markets broke lower as well with soybeans down as much as 25-26 cents in the night trading session. There were also some worries that a series of economic reports from China this weekend might be bearish. Warmer and drier weather forecasts, coupled with USDA announcing 410,000 MT of soybean sales to China and 120,000 MT to Egypt, brought some buyers back to the market as we approached the 9:30 a.m. open outcry opening.There were scattered but very ligh...
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.