The CBOT and CME markets were mostly higher on Wednesday with soybeans and soymeal seeing a surprise turnaround in the afternoon after scoring new contract lows overnight. There was little fundamental news to drive the reversal in soybeans’ fortunes and WPI attributes most of the day’s gains to oversold technical conditions and short profit taking. Corn and CBOT wheat turned higher as well, though again fundamental reasoning was lacking, and the day’s trade seemed an extension of the ongoing back-and-forth trade. More interesting was the €3 decline in Paris milling wheat futures as Egypt looks to book wheat imports directly from Russia via private deals as well as the rallies in all three livestock contracts as meat d...
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
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.