The CBOT sold off once again amid pronounced pressure from outside macroeconomic markets. Last week’s Fed interest rate hike – the fastest since the 1970’s – combined with Britian’s new economic policy and the election results in Italy sent macro traders into a selling frenzy. The big concern, of course, is the looming threat of a recession, which could dent demand for physical commodities. The CBOT, despite tight stocks predicted for corn, wheat, and – to a lesser extent – soybeans, succumbed to the selling to start the week and major ag markets all headed lower. Notably, the selloff was the most pronounced in the livestock markets as falling meat prices combined with a semi-bearish Cattle on Feed...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.