The CBOT was sharply lower for the day with wheat, corn, and soybeans all breaking major technical support points. Yesterday’s better-than-expected Crop Conditions report from USDA added pressure overnight, despite the two-week forecast for very hot temperatures and dry conditions for the Midwest. Funds were net sellers for the day with technicals weakening significantly and now coupled with a more bearish outlook from USDA. Also working against commodity markets was disappointing economic data from China that revived fears about an economic slowdown in the country. After two months of exceptionally strong feedlot placements, WPI’s models are showing a slowdown in placements for August. Heading into the August Cattle on Feed re...
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.