Soybeans futures closed mostly about 4-5 cents higher in surprisingly active trade. Long grain/short soybean spreads were being unwound, which contributed some of the buying as did Chinese orders to price some of their basis purchases that presumably are to be loaded soon. General Comments Corn, wheat and soybeans all traded modestly higher overnight in better-than-expected volume for this holiday week, but only soybeans were able to maintain those gains during the day session. Corn and wheat markets ran out of buying support early in the day session and drifted lower into the close. The March corn contract closed at $3.59, a new low settlement price. Some of soybeans’ strength and grains’ weakness resulted from year-end unwinding of long...
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.