The CBOT was mixed to start the week with traders waiting to see what USDA’s Crop Conditions report would show. Row crops featured two-sided trade after weekend rains brought some relief to many parts of the Midwest but skipped most of Illinois and Missouri. The forecast is gradually shifting to feature wetter weather for the Midwest, but there is great skepticism about this until the rains materialize. Funds were slight net buyers for the day and most of that activity was concentrated in the soy complex, but corn and KCBT wheat also moved higher on fund buying. The market now faces a significant challenge; how to balance terrible crop conditions ratings and the current drought against forecasts of improving conditions. While traders...
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.