When markets reach equilibrium with little new demonstrative information, you get days like today. The trades move up slightly or down a little and look like both sides of nothing. In the old days, this is when pit traders were able to read their latest dense copy of The Economist magazine. When supply/demand fundamentals are seemingly static, traders turn to macros like interest rate hike impacts on exchange rates, autocratic saber-rattling, and inflation-caused social displacement. All relevant, but tertiary and sometimes exaggerated in effect. Unless or until something breaks hard enough - like a demand crushing recession, or a resumed Black Sea blockade, a rail strike, or a new Plaza Accord on the dollar’s value, etc. Ther...
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...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
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.