Markets were called to open lower based on macro weakness and rain in the forecast for the U.S. Plains and parts of Russia. That outlook held true but selling in wheat quickly accelerated and kept corn trade muted. Wheat triggered sell-stops on its downside move and funds were net sellers for the day. The soy complex, however, shrugged off the grains’ weakness (helped, in part, by bear corn or wheat vs. soybean spreads) and climbed higher. Global grain trading firms are increasingly worried about farmers defaulting on forward contracts for the 2020/21 crop. As noted in more detail in this week’s MERCOSUR Regional Analysis and European Market Analysis from WPI, firms are especially concerned about Argentine and Ukrainian f...
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.