World Perspectives

Zero but Not Negative Interest Rates

The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FMOC) was scheduled to meet on Wednesday of this week, but for the second time it took emergency action prior to the meeting. On Sunday, Chairman Jerome Powell announced a 100 basis point cut to the federal fund rate. This comes after the Fed announced an emergency 50 basis point rate cut on 3 March.  That puts the rate in the range of 0 to 0.25 percent, to where it was lowered in 2008 and stayed until the end of 2015. In his statement Powell generally ruled out negative interest rates like Japan and Europe have had. Back in the fall of 2019, President Trump tweeted several times that the Fed should adopt negative interest rates, or at least get down to zero rates so that the...

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U.S. Cattle on Feed in feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 11.7 million head on November 1, 2025. The inventory was 2 percent below November 1, 2024.  Placements in feedlots during October totaled 2.04 million head, 10 percent below 2024.  Marketings of fed cattle dur...

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Market Commentary: Taking Back Yesterday’s Losses

The CBOT was mostly higher on Tuesday with rumors of Chinese soybean buying and strong performance in equity markets boosting trader sentiment. Tuesday’s trade seemed to reflect the typical pre-Thanksgiving glide into low-volume, low-volatility trade that often dominates the day before an...

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Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.235/bushel, down $0.0025 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.3925/bushel, up $0.045 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $11.2475/bushel, up $0.015 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soymeal closed at $320.4/short ton, up $2.1 fr...

livestock

Cattle on Feed for Nov 1, 2025

U.S. Cattle on Feed in feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 11.7 million head on November 1, 2025. The inventory was 2 percent below November 1, 2024.  Placements in feedlots during October totaled 2.04 million head, 10 percent below 2024.  Marketings of fed cattle dur...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Taking Back Yesterday’s Losses

The CBOT was mostly higher on Tuesday with rumors of Chinese soybean buying and strong performance in equity markets boosting trader sentiment. Tuesday’s trade seemed to reflect the typical pre-Thanksgiving glide into low-volume, low-volatility trade that often dominates the day before an...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.235/bushel, down $0.0025 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.3925/bushel, up $0.045 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $11.2475/bushel, up $0.015 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soymeal closed at $320.4/short ton, up $2.1 fr...

livestock

Cattle on Feed Report Shows Record Low Placements for October

USDA’s monthly Cattle on Feed report was released on Friday. Total cattle on feed amounted to 11.7 million head, 98 percent of last year.    Placements were the lowest for the month of October since the series began in 1996, dropping 10 percent on the year due to tight supply o...

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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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