On Thursday, 12 September 2002, USDA's September WASDE "gave the market what it had anticipated," and as a result, "overbought signal and profit-taking were to focal point" of that day's session. According to WPI's Emily French: After watching trade in Chicago today, one would think that the September WASDE projections were much more bearish than those released today. At first glance it certainly appears like everyone is on the same page with the USDA, as it adjusted projections and was, for the most part, in line to what trade expectations were for the world. Which makes one wonder, is that necessarily a good thing? Regardless, overall, we view the report as extremely neutral and quite on target to some current and forecasted market condi...
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...
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.