The Federal Reserve looks poised to cut interest rates - or does it? This depends upon whether you consider what the Fed says it looks at – inflation and job growth – or read the minutes of its last meeting. Of course, the decision is catalyzed by the president’s jawboning the central bank to ease up on interest rates. On one hand, the economic data reports from this week would normally inspire the Fed to be more hawkish or, at least, stay the course. Consumer prices rose 0.1 percent in June and are up 1.6 percent in the past year. More significantly, the Fed focuses on "core inflation," which is the rate of price increases for sectors other than ag and energy. That rate grew 0.3 percent in June, the highest monthly incre...
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.