Wheat futures rallied to start the week on increasing conflict in the Black Sea with Ukraine targeting Russian ocean vessels and adding new uncertainties to the region’s grain trade abilities. Wheat was only the first of two major ag markets (lean hogs being the other) to end the day higher, however, with corn, the soy complex, and cattle futures all turning lower. Favorable rains for the Midwest over the weekend sent soybeans to a 30+ cent/bushel loss for the day and continued to wrestle corn under $5. Fund activity was mixed with moderate short covering in wheat, heavy selling in the soy complex, and essentially neutral positioning in corn. WPI readers will well know that the USDA’s August WASDE report comes out this Friday, a...
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.