Markets had strong buying in the Sunday night session following the three-day Easter weekend and USDA’s bullish corn/soybean acreage estimates of last Thursday. The overnight rally then quickly lost steam this morning, partially due to ideas that those USDA acreage estimates were perhaps too small. The other reason was that U.S. markets went from a steady-to-slightly-lower opening to big losses at midday, which became huge (almost 3 percent at one point) on more trade worries. The Dow did recover about 1 percent in the last 30 minutes of trading. Crude oil was also down hard, and the U.S. dollar was slightly weaker. Funds reportedly started the new quarter short 72,000 contracts of Chicago wheat but long 156,000 contracts of corn and...
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
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.