World Perspectives

Weaker Consumer Finances Darken Economic Outlook, Despite Interest Rate Cuts

The past two weeks have seen the typical influx of macroeconomic data releases, most of which helped prompt the Federal Reserve to issue its 50-bps interest rate cut on Wednesday. While the interest rate cut was initially viewed as a positive signal (lower interest rates generally increase economic activity), history suggests rate cuts can precede market corrections or recessions. This is highly dependent on other factor at play in the economy, which WPI attempts to examine here.  WPI looks at macroeconomics through three primary lenses: national-level factors, consumer income and finances, and consumer spending. The first, national-level factors, includes items such as stock market valuation, the Treasury yield curve, and the inflati...

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Argentine Weather Emboldens CBOT Bulls

The CBOT found its way to higher ground on Thursday after an old-school hard opening with no overnight session to guide the market. Argentina’s weather is starting to become more impactful for grain futures as dryness persists into the mid-January forecast, which could disrupt early corn and so...

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Livestock Roundup: Butterfat Boom

As WPI reported on 2 July, USDA released its proposed Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) reforms; the final proposal was released in early November 2024.  This final proposal will now go to producer referenda in each of the 11 FMMO regions. Producers whose milk was pooled in January...

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Summary of Futures

Mar 25 Corn closed at $4.5375/bushel, up $0.0525 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Wheat closed at $5.41/bushel, up $0.0625 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Soybeans closed at $9.9725/bushel, up $0.16 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Soymeal closed at $314.9/short ton, up $13.3 from yes...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Argentine Weather Emboldens CBOT Bulls

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Livestock Roundup: Butterfat Boom

As WPI reported on 2 July, USDA released its proposed Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) reforms; the final proposal was released in early November 2024.  This final proposal will now go to producer referenda in each of the 11 FMMO regions. Producers whose milk was pooled in January...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 25 Corn closed at $4.5375/bushel, up $0.0525 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Wheat closed at $5.41/bushel, up $0.0625 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Soybeans closed at $9.9725/bushel, up $0.16 from yesterday's close. Mar 25 Soymeal closed at $314.9/short ton, up $13.3 from yes...

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Holiday Schedule

Financial markets will be closed on Wednesday, 25 December for the Christmas holiday. As a result, there will be no Ag Perspectives report on Wednesday. WPI wishes everyone a joyous and safe holiday.WPI will resume operations on Thursday, 26 December. Note that Ag Perspectives will be providing...

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From WPI Consulting

Communicating importance of value-added products

Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.

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