World Perspectives

Strong Retail Sales Report and Inflation Outlook

The June retail sales report beat consensus expectations, rising 0.6 percent. Moreover, it was a strong report, with 10 out of 13 of the sales categories increasing. The largest increase was in the auto sector, a traditionally volatile category. June sales were up 1.2 percent, which came after a 3.8 percent drop in May, though the May report numbers were revised up in the June report to a much smaller drop. Astonishingly, auto sales are now up 6.5 percent over the past year.   Excluding auto sales, and the two other volatile categories, building materials and gas stations, the “core” retail sales posted a 0.5 percent increase. These “core” sales are up 4.5 percent in the past year, which is above the 3.9 pe...

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Mostly a Green Finish of a Bullish Week

The market was green across the board in grain and oilseed in the overnight and mostly finished that way in the day session except for soyoil, where profit taking prevailed. It seemed like a hot week for soyoil but after today’s session, it turned out to be corn that had the better week.&...

livestock

LH 2025 and 2026 Cattle Outlook Challenging for Packers, Favorable for Producers

The biggest question in the cattle and beef markets lately has been “when does the rally stop?” after beef values and fed and feeder cattle prices have all rallied to new all-time highs (beef prices if one ignores the brief rally during the COVID-19 plant closures). The fundamental...

WPI Transportation Report

Dry Bulk Markets The Capesize market is up more than 80 percent from last week’s report due to greatly improved iron ore demand in the Atlantic. There has been a notable increase in inquiries for vessels from Brazil and West Africa for the August/LH September time frame. Additionally, Aus...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Mostly a Green Finish of a Bullish Week

The market was green across the board in grain and oilseed in the overnight and mostly finished that way in the day session except for soyoil, where profit taking prevailed. It seemed like a hot week for soyoil but after today’s session, it turned out to be corn that had the better week.&...

livestock

LH 2025 and 2026 Cattle Outlook Challenging for Packers, Favorable for Producers

The biggest question in the cattle and beef markets lately has been “when does the rally stop?” after beef values and fed and feeder cattle prices have all rallied to new all-time highs (beef prices if one ignores the brief rally during the COVID-19 plant closures). The fundamental...

WPI Transportation Report

Dry Bulk Markets The Capesize market is up more than 80 percent from last week’s report due to greatly improved iron ore demand in the Atlantic. There has been a notable increase in inquiries for vessels from Brazil and West Africa for the August/LH September time frame. Additionally, Aus...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Export Sales

Export Sales and Shipments for July 4-10, 2025.  Wheat: Net sales of 494,400 metric tons (MT) for 2025/2026 were down 13 percent from the previous week, but up 8 percent from the prior 4-week average. Export shipments of 432,900 MT were down 3 percent from the previous week, but up 7 perce...

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From WPI Consulting

Infrastructure investment due diligence

On behalf of a Canadian oilseed processer WPI's team provided market analysis, econometric modeling and financial due diligence in support of a $24 million-dollar investment in a Ukrainian crush plant. Consistent with WPI's findings, local production to supply the plant and the facility's output have expanded exponentially since the investment. WPI has conducted parallel work on behalf of U.S., South American and European clients, both private and public, in the agri-food space.

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