Punxsutawney Phil reportedly saw his shadow today at Gobbler’s Knob and there will supposedly be six more weeks of winter, though he is like a grain analyst and has been wrong as often as he’s been right. The markets were unmoved by this annual stunt and mostly traded its now familiar direction – sideways. This despite calls for something unusual please. March corn made its biggest move of the past week, trading down 0.8 percent despite the huge export number released this morning by USDA. There was a little bit of excitement, or at least what passes for such in this mid-winter lull. March soymeal and February live cattle hit fresh intrasession highs. Overall, the livestock and soy complexes added value, corn was down, an...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) enters its mandated six-year review on 1 July. The original intent of the review is outlined in Article 34.7, which obligates members to: Provide recommendations and decide on appropriate actions. Extend the USMCA for another 16 years and meet aga...
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.