The CBOT saw mixed trade on Wednesday with wheat futures seeing the most interesting trade as they posted double-digit losses amid weak European markets and the threats posed by the Canadian railway strike. In contrast, soybeans scored another higher close with support coming from soyoil’s rally and another day of large new crop export sales to China. Corn futures were caught in the middle with crop tour projections for large yields this year seeing offsetting influences from strong ethanol and export demand. Funds were net buyers in the soy complex and are slowly (but half-heartedly) paring back their short position there while remaining flat corn for the day (and therefore still deeply short overall). Managed money traders were net...
What You Need to Know Today: Iran says its definition of the Strait of Hormuz is now a “vast operation area” that stretches from Jask to Siri Island. The White House said President Trump did not sign a suspension of the TRQs on beef imports but is “finalizing potential...
If the media headlines and Trump critics are to be believed, President Trump is headed to Beijing this Thursday in a weakened position. China is in control, it has the upper hand, and expectations are very low. These are the same critics that argue against overly simplistic zero-sum analyses in...
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.