It is as important to know when a trend is about to run its course as it is to know when one is about to take off.Investors and speculators are forever seeking to identify the next new market trend to climb and ride to a profitable reward. This constant search occurs equally as much in financial markets as it does in commodity markets. Whether it involves equities, bonds, interest rates or commodities, the old cliché that "the trend is your friend" is an obvious truism for traders. The search for trends may be based on different time frames. People with 401k or IRA accounts may be making conservative investment decisions as they look ahead at retirement years. Speculators willing to assume considerable risk may take positions in markets hop...
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.