It has been a day of light trading volume and somewhat more limited price movements with corn closing lower, soybeans closing higher and mixed closes for wheat. General Comments Outside markets saw U.S. stocks advance after two down days. The Dow closed up 91 points. Crude oil fell 40 points to close at $99.20, and the U.S. dollar index closed higher. Gold was little changed. Russia has been drummed out of the G-8 group of industrialized countries that now becomes the G-7. Russian troops are holding to positions along the Ukrainian border. They have made no further incursion into Ukrainian territory, but that fear remains and the presence of the Russian army along the border keeps the fear well stirred. Although there has been no obvious...
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...
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.