CBOT futures were higher to start the week with wheat leading the rally. Drought in the U.S. Plains, too much rain in eastern Australia, and geopolitical concerns in the Black Sea all combined to drive Paris, Australian, CBOT and KCBT wheat futures to new contract highs. Corn was pulled higher through spread trade and spillover buying while soybeans and soyoil rallied on higher crude oil prices. Funds were surprisingly active ahead of the holiday-shortened trading week in the U.S. and were net buyers across the board. World wheat futures were higher, due partly to Russia’s continued efforts to amass troops near the Ukrainian borders. While the odds of a Russian invasion of Ukraine are low, such an event would undoubtedly lead t...
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.