It might have been a day of big surprises given the number of new crop estimates being issued around the world. Governments in China, Brazil, Canada, and the U.S. all issued new forecasts, but the overall changes were relatively small. The result was a mixed day in U.S. futures markets. Volume was up, and new contract lows were established for March corn and soymeal, and Euronext wheat.
China’s new report is hardly worth mentioning. StatsCan made some adjustments to stocks. The CONAB changes in production estimates are notable (see below), but USDA’s WASDE numbers for domestic supplies were market movers. Increased wheat carryover in the U.S. and EU was more than offset by reductions elsewhere causing overall world whe...
The corn and soy complex closed higher, with the wheat market mixed, as winter wheat closed up but spring wheat and livestock ended lower. Part of the strength for corn and soybeans may have been a weather premium, as crop planting has started out fast but warm weather has been slow to develop...
Real GDP grew at a 2 percent annual rate in the first quarter of 2026, slightly below the consensus expectation of 2.3 percent but above the 0.5 percent growth in Q4 2025. The GDP number matches the average annualized pace of growth since the peak back in late 2007, right before the Financial P...
Reflect for a moment on what you eat. There is a lot of advice out there in the ether about what you should eat, but really, what do you currently eat and how much? The good people at the USDA have some data for you, to help you answer that question. USDA says that we eat quite a bit of meat. L...
