The Fed did not raise the federal funds rate at its January meeting. Instead, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell said the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) would be “patient” about future rate hikes, which is a dovish turn from the four increases last year. In short, the Fed will be watching inflation in 2019, and there is plenty to watch. Oil prices have been bullish, in part because of OPEC cutbacks and new U.S. sanctions on Venezuela. Also, the January jobs report that came out immediately after the FOMC meeting showed a gain of 296,000 new private sector jobs, well above the 175,000 expected. Chairman Powell’s concerns were mostly focused outside of the U.S. Besides addressing the impact of the government...
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...
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.