In a twist on the recent Black Sea narratives, CBOT futures were higher overnight after Ukraine attacked Russian port infrastructure in the Crimean Peninsula. Reports came overnight that Russia’s oil export infrastructure in the Novorossiysk port had been attacked by naval drones (presumed to be Ukraine’s). That created a short-lived rally in wheat, corn, and soybeans overnight as headline-reading trading algos reacted to the news. Thereafter, however, futures were generally on the defensive with markets retreating to recent lows amid a lack of other news. Mild short covering did help lift corn and CBOT wheat to a higher close for the day as traders are again reluctant to be short over the weekend with weather trends likely to d...
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.