With the Christmas and New Year holidays looming, this is the last full week for trading of grain and soy futures markets in 2018. Following early closures on 24 December and 31 December, they will then be closed on 25 December and 1 January. The holiday mood seems to have settled into the markets already, at least as measured by trading volumes. We grant that they have had very little to trade on since the Chinese soybean purchase announcements. However, there are still several items or straws in the wind floating around with the potential to affect market values. As long that situation continues, market participants dare not become too complacent during this holiday season. South American Weather – South American crop production ha...
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.
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...