Grain and soybeans traded slightly higher overnight for the most part, and trading volume was modest. Those trends carried over into the day session as the market awaited the weekly EIA ethanol data and the NOPA report on members’ February crush. General Comments As totally expected, the Fed raised its interest rate a quarter-percent today. The accompanying statement indicated that while the Fed sees the U.S. economy on track with good job growth and inflation nearing its 2 percent target, a gradual approach to rate hikes is still preferable. A majority of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) believes there will be a total of three increases in 2017. Outside analysts think the next one will come no earlier than June, but they are also...
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.