The market is frothy. Tomorrow’s USDA WASDE report could affirm today’s relatively bullish sentiment, or it could break it on fundamentals. The question is whether USDA’s corrections in yield, production and stocks go as far as current guesses. In all likelihood, there will be some disappointment, and some satisfaction. Like equities before this week, commodities have been in a little melt up. There was some positioning ahead of tomorrow but not the usual kind. It was more risk on than risk off. Buy corn and wheat, sell soy. The December corn contract is now at a five-month high despite it being harvest time and amid record global stocks. The U.S. alone is facing more than 2 billion bushels in corn ending stocks. T...
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.