Grain and soy futures opened the overnight session with prices mixed before they turned lower. Fund short covering in wheat abated, and markets were pressured by good planting progress for corn and soybeans as well as an uptick in winter wheat's good/excellent rating. General Comments A fresh gust of macro wind sent the U.S. dollar surging higher and pushed many commodities, including grain and soy futures, lower. Early today, officials of the European Central Bank said they expected to expand the bank's quantitative easing program over the next several weeks to counter low economic growth from the "summer doldrums." At the same time, it was announced that the UK suffered negative price deflation in April with consumer prices down 0.1 per...
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...
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.