U.S. grain and soy futures markets, particularly Chicago wheat futures, are as sensitive to changing U.S. dollar values as other commodity markets and more so than many. Today's price action for wheat, corn and soybean futures markets is a good example. General Comments Today was the day of the U.S. dollar. A sharp and unexpected plunge against the euro and other major currencies caught many traders leaning the wrong way. The U.S. dollar's steep drop sent buyers into numerous commodity markets with many trying to cover short positions. The U.S. Dollar Index closed down 145 points or 1.5 percent. At its day's low, it was off 176 points.There appeared to be two factors sending the U.S. dollar into a tailspin. First, it was reported that con...
What You Need to Know Today: Russia rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, including a proposal to halt attacks on civilian shipping that could help restore grain flows from Ukrainian ports. Tyson Foods announced plans to permanently close its Joslin, Illinois, beef processing facili...
The big news in the cattle markets yesterday was Tyson Foods’ move to close two more beef plants. One of them, the Joslin, Illinois, plant was shuttered immediately after the announcement. The other, in Eagle Mountain, Utah, is a case-ready plant that does not slaughter cattle. Tyson also...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday. In July, the CPI rose 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, and rose 3.4 percent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy, or the “core” infla...
From WPI Consulting
Communicating importance of value-added products
Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.