World Perspectives

Monetary Policy Between a Rock and a Hard Place

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will meet this week; interest rates were last raised in July 2023, and during Q4 when rates were held steady markets were hopeful that was a signal that a rate cut would be coming in 2024.  

Right now, however, the Federal Funds Futures market is predicting a 99 percent chance that at the next meeting rates will remain where they are, at an effective rate of 5.33 percent and a 97 percent chance that they will be held steady at the FMOC May meeting. It is not until June that there is a 56 percent chance of a rate cut.  Inflation ticked up in December 2023 to 3.4 percent and has remained “sticky” at 3.1 percent in January and 3.2 percent in February. Moreover, February&rs...

Related Articles
feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

WPI Crop Progress and Conditions App (Updated 27 April)

Update for 6 April 2025: Last year, users pointed out differences between the 5-year averages reported in this app and what USDA estimates in its weekly report. The difference exists because WPI calculates average based on the last 5 years of observations for the current week. In cases where ob...

livestock

Livestock Industry Margins

Beef packer margins improved to -$100/head last week, up $28 from the prior week as the Choice cutout stabilized following its brief post-Easter decline while fed cattle prices eased modestly. The cutout firmed to $384/cwt, while fed cattle prices slipped to $246/cwt, allowing packer margins to...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

CFTC COT Report Analysis

Friday’s CFTC report showed funds adding to net long position across the major ag futures contracts after a two week break as deteriorating negotiations in the Middle East and the emergence of weather concerns triggered risk-on buying. Funds bought 40,000 contracts (4.7 percent) to their...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

WPI Crop Progress and Conditions App (Updated 27 April)

Update for 6 April 2025: Last year, users pointed out differences between the 5-year averages reported in this app and what USDA estimates in its weekly report. The difference exists because WPI calculates average based on the last 5 years of observations for the current week. In cases where ob...

livestock

Livestock Industry Margins

Beef packer margins improved to -$100/head last week, up $28 from the prior week as the Choice cutout stabilized following its brief post-Easter decline while fed cattle prices eased modestly. The cutout firmed to $384/cwt, while fed cattle prices slipped to $246/cwt, allowing packer margins to...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

CFTC COT Report Analysis

Friday’s CFTC report showed funds adding to net long position across the major ag futures contracts after a two week break as deteriorating negotiations in the Middle East and the emergence of weather concerns triggered risk-on buying. Funds bought 40,000 contracts (4.7 percent) to their...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Jul 26 Corn closed at $4.6925/bushel, up $0.0575 from yesterday's close.  Jul 26 Wheat closed at $6.2975/bushel, up $0.13 from yesterday's close.  Jul 26 Soybeans closed at $11.92/bushel, up $0.135 from yesterday's close.  Jul 26 Soymeal closed at $327.8/short ton, up $8.7 from y...

Image
From WPI Consulting

Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming

WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.

Search World Perspectives

Sign In to World Perspectives

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up