The market was called higher except for soymeal and that was the start to the day, but it only took a few minutes before it turned much more decidedly mixed. Another very large flash sale of corn to China got everything fast out of the gate but the enthusiasm eventually evaporated even for corn, which set another intra-session high but then closed just a fraction in the green. Even for those markets that slid downward today, it is not a bear market. Overall demand, large volumes, and record export values means a healthy market, even if somedays are down. Selling the tops and buying the bottoms is what happens. The trend is evidenced by the CME’s continual raising of maintenance margin levels. NYU’s Aswath Damodaran unpack...
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.