This week’s grain and soy futures price rally continued during the overnight session in a somewhat muted fashion and with much lower trading volume than the previous night. Those prices continued on the plus side as the day session opened. General Comments On the macro scene, European Central Bank (ECB) President Draghi said that the bank would assess the need for additional economic stimulus in December, which was taken as a hint that it was preparing for more quantitative easing in an effort to get the moribund European economy moving again. As a result, the U.S. Dollar Index shot higher as did U.S. equity markets. The Dow closed up 321 points. Crude oil closed slightly higher.This week’s grain and soy futures price rally continued duri...
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.