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...

Related Articles
feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.4725/bushel, up $0.0375 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.4025/bushel, up $0.02 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $11.195/bushel, up $0.0375 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soymeal closed at $311.2/short ton, down $0.1 fr...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: CBOT Ends Lower as Slow Export News Overrides Black Sea Tensions

The CBOT was mostly lower at mid-week with the threat of Russian attacks on Ukrainian vessels and ag infrastructure taking a backseat to the lack of export news, particularly from China. Corn, wheat, and soybeans all settled in the red for the day with soybeans leading the downside move on anot...

Waste Energy; Selective Protectionism

Waste Energy The cudgel held over agriculture-based feedstocks has typically been indirect land use. The U.S. biofuel industry is currently battling with California regulators over its calculation. Works in Progress editor Samuel Hughes identifies land use restrictions as newly common across al...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.4725/bushel, up $0.0375 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.4025/bushel, up $0.02 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $11.195/bushel, up $0.0375 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soymeal closed at $311.2/short ton, down $0.1 fr...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: CBOT Ends Lower as Slow Export News Overrides Black Sea Tensions

The CBOT was mostly lower at mid-week with the threat of Russian attacks on Ukrainian vessels and ag infrastructure taking a backseat to the lack of export news, particularly from China. Corn, wheat, and soybeans all settled in the red for the day with soybeans leading the downside move on anot...

Waste Energy; Selective Protectionism

Waste Energy The cudgel held over agriculture-based feedstocks has typically been indirect land use. The U.S. biofuel industry is currently battling with California regulators over its calculation. Works in Progress editor Samuel Hughes identifies land use restrictions as newly common across al...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.435/bushel, down $0.065 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.3825/bushel, down $0.0275 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $11.1575/bushel, down $0.09 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soymeal closed at $311.3/short ton, down $0...

Image
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.

Search World Perspectives

Sign In to World Perspectives

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up