Friday’s CBOT trade featured a late-week rally with wheat leading the way as traders now seem to believe that the April rains in the Southern Plains were insufficient to significantly benefit the HRW crop. KCBT futures posted 30+ cent gains for the day and corn and soybeans followed through with ample technical buying in their own right. Funds were net buyers for the day and covered some of the short positions they’ve recently built or expanded in the major ag products. The May WASDE next Friday will now be the market’s primary focus with the report expected to be bearish new crop corn and soybeans (and likely old crop corn too) while being bullish new crop wheat. The weekly CFTC report was in-line with expectations...
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.