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HPAI Spreads to Mammals; Detected on Dairy Farms

Yesterday, there were two reports made public of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) detections in livestock. First, kid goats in Minnesota, who were...

February Cold Storage

The February Cold Storage report’s numbers reflect a significant drawdown in red meat and poultry stocks compared to one year ago. Total red meat and...

Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa Regional Analysis

Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA/AFRICA – MEA REGION Egypt’s Prime minister says that the prices of essential goods will...

Market Commentary: Soy Complex Leads CBOT with Vegoil Rally

The biggest moves in ag commodity futures are in the vegoil markets right now, with stronger Malaysian palm oil exports and drought threats pushing values...

Revising Down the Economy

We’ve now had a couple of months in 2024 where economic report revisions have come in, and they have been significant. This has changed the outlook o...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.3775/bushel, down $0.015 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.55/bushel, up $0.0025 from yesterday's close.&nbs...

European Market Analysis

Regional News  Russia’s grain stocks at the end of February totaled 28 MMT, down 2.7 percent compared to the prior year. Wheat stocks of 17.5 MM...

Mercosur Regional Analysis

Corn The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange lowered its forecast of Argentina’s corn harvest estimate by 2.5 MMT down to 54 MMT last week. The main reasons...

Cattle on Feed

U.S. Cattle on Feed is up 1 percent in U.S. feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head to total 11.8 million head on March 1, 2024.  Placements in f...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.3925/bushel, down $0.015 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.5475/bushel, up $0.08 from yesterday's close.&nbs...

CFTC COT Report Analysis

The attached PDF offers graphical depiction and seasonal analysis of managed money and commercial traders' net position in key agricultural commodity marke...

Fixing the WTO; The Winner is Ag

Fixing the WTO The 13th Ministerial Conference last month in Abu Dhabi was yet another failure by the WTO. Now Singapore has proposed a retreat to discuss...

Cattle on Feed Report: Record February Placements

USDA released the monthly Cattle on Feed report today. As has been the case more often than not since mid-2023, actual placements have exceeded the pre-rep...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.4075/bushel, up $0.0175 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.4675/bushel, up $0.0175 from yesterday's close.&nb...

Market Commentary: Bullish Outside Markets and a Spring Rally

Although it didn’t start out that way, today’s trading ended mostly in the green for grains and soybeans despite continued weak fundamentals an...

Livestock Roundup: Cattle on Feed Preview

USDA will release its Cattle on Feed report tomorrow; the consensus pre-report analysts’ estimate is for the inventory of cattle on feed to be 101 pe...

Fake Meat Fight; Transatlantic Mutuality; Biofuel Instead of Food

Fake Meat Fight Some western state U.S. Senate Democrats are in tough reelection positions and need to show their distance from President Biden. Following...

Export Sales

Export Sales and Shipments for March 8-14, 2024 Wheat:  Net sales reductions of 109,600 metric tons (MT) for 2023/2024--a marketing-year low--were dow...

Policy Shorts

India Paradox: A new report using the Modified Mixed Recall Period shows that over the past decade, India matched China’s success in the decade befor...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.39/bushel, down $0.005 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.45/bushel, down $0.075 from yesterday's close. ...

Black Sea Regional Analysis

Russian Grain Markets: 11–15 March 2024 Russian grain markets remained slightly bullish in the south and Volga valley. However, export prices did not...

Market Commentary: Wheat Gains Continue while Corn, Soy Slide Sideways

The CBOT was mostly sideways on Tuesday with traders consolidating positions ahead of next week’s Grain Stocks and Planting Intentions reports. Fresh...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.395/bushel, up $0.035 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.525/bushel, up $0.0975 from yesterday's close. ...

We All Scream

President Joe Biden is “bad talking” about the food industry, accusing it of greed for raising prices. While his focus was on “chips&rdqu...

President’s FY 2025 Budget Request for USDA

While Congress is finishing the last six appropriations bills for FY 2024 (with a deadline of this Friday), President Biden submitted his FY 2025 budget pr...

Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa Regional Analysis

Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA/AFRICA – MEA REGION Grain information and activity in the MEA region was reduced greatly this...

Monetary Policy Between a Rock and a Hard Place

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will meet this week; interest rates were last raised in July 2023, and during Q4 when rates were held steady marke...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.36/bushel, down $0.0075 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.4275/bushel, up $0.1425 from yesterday's close.&nb...

Cahiers Redux – Politicians Recoil

The Cahiers de doléances [or kaje for short] were the pre-French revolution (1789) lists of societal complaints. The collective disappointments of t...

Brazil’s Meat Opportunity

Brazil has famously surpassed the U.S. as the world’s largest producer and exporter of soybeans, and it could become a more consistent top exporter o...

Mercosur Regional Analysis

Corn  Intense rains have fallen over practically all of Argentina’s agricultural region in the last few days, delaying the corn harvest. The rep...

European Market Analysis

Regional News  The EU Commission is proposing new support measures for farmers after widespread protests rocked the region in recent weeks. Farmers we...

Market Commentary: Technical Trade Dominates on Quiet Fundamentals

The CBOT was mixed to end the week with scant, fresh fundamental news leading to more technically-oriented trade over the past few weeks. Wheat futures wer...

CFTC COT Report Analysis

The attached PDF offers graphical depiction and seasonal analysis of managed money and commercial traders' net position in key agricultural commodity marke...

Oilseed Highlights: Close but no Cigar

The Market The May soybean contract trade above $12 several times this week intrasession but could not hold that number at the daily close. Nonetheless, th...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.3675/bushel, up $0.03 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.285/bushel, down $0.0375 from yesterday's close.&nbs...

Crop Program Payment Estimates for 2024

Today, sign-up for the Ag Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs closes; without a new farm bill, no changes have been made to either p...

Export Sales

Export Sales and Shipments for March 1-7, 2024. Wheat:  Net sales of 83,800 metric tons (MT) for 2023/2024--a marketing-year low--were down 69 percent...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.3375/bushel, down $0.075 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.3225/bushel, down $0.12 from yesterday's close.&n...

Market Commentary: Quirky Export Sales and Low Momentum

Equities markets reacted negatively to inflationary U.S. economic indictors and spread a risk-off mentality to commodities. The dollar rose in response to...

Livestock Roundup: All Things Pork

Tyson Foods announced this week that it was shutting its Perry, Iowa plant. Press reports indicate that the facility has a capacity of about 9,000 hogs per...

Big is Bad; Big is Uncertain; Texas is Big

Big is Bad President Joe Biden has a popular proposal, increase taxes on less than 800 billionaires in the U.S. If some people worry about politics for sal...

Market Commentary: Lower Volume Except in Soyoil and Cattle

For most commodities it was a lackluster day but there was higher volume trading in soyoil and cattle. Palm oil was the support behind soyoil and cattle va...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.4125/bushel, down $0.005 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.4425/bushel, down $0.0325 from yesterday's close...

Squeaky Wheel; EATS Ugly

Squeaky Wheels Farmers in Europe have been on a rampage for months and it is good that EU political leaders are responding to the complaints. Squeaky wheel...

Black Sea Regional Analysis

Russian Grain Markets: 4–8 March 2024 Russian grain markets remained bearish against global trends and recent tenders which traded wheat, Russia&rsqu...

China’s Veiled Data; Unveiled Livestock Emissions

China’s Veiled Data Some agricultural analysts in the West have noted that Chinese data reporting in the sector can go missing, fail to be consistent...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.4175/bushel, up $0 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.475/bushel, up $0.0025 from yesterday's close.  Ma...

More Livestock and Poultry Rules Coming from USDA

On 5 March, WPI reported USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) released the second of a series of three new Packers and Stockyards Adminis...

Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa Regional Analysis

Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA/AFRICA – MEA REGION Egypt and the IMF have signed an agreement for $8 billion in financing, i...

Market Commentary: Short Run Bulls Battle Long Run Bears

The CBOT is fighting a battle between improving short run technicals and bearish long run fundamentals, which is apt to keep the market choppy heading into...

Bogus Problem; Radicalism Backlash

Bogus Problem Reinforcing the problem asserted by USDA’s political leadership, the Economic Research Service highlighted Census of Agriculture data s...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.4175/bushel, up $0.02 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.4725/bushel, up $0.095 from yesterday's close. ...

Spring Cattle Outlook

In the March World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report, USDA raised beef production by 140 million pounds based on slaughter weight and...

Mercosur Regional Analysis

Corn Argentina’s early corn harvest has begun in various regions of the country with good yields, although it's too early to draw conclusions as the...

WASDE Soybeans

Soybeans: USDA’s March estimate is that U.S. soybean supply and use for 2023/24 is unchanged from February.  The U.S. season-average soybean pri...

WASDE Corn

Corn: USDA’s March estimate is that 2023/24 U.S. corn outlook is unchanged from February.  The season-average corn price received by producers i...

WASDE Wheat

Wheat: USDA’s March estimate is that U.S. ending stocks are increased 673 million bushels and are 18 percent higher than last year.  The season-...

Market Commentary: Interesting Trade Despite Few WASDE Changes

The CBOT posted interesting developments on Friday, even while the March WASDE report failed to offer the same intrigue. The USDA’s latest look at U...

CFTC COT Report Analysis

The attached PDF offers graphical depiction and seasonal analysis of managed money and commercial traders' net position in key agricultural commodity marke...

Oilseed Highlights: Bulls Amidst the Bears

The Market The trend remains downward for soybeans and yet this week provided a bounce off the bottom. The move reflects some belief that demand is suffici...

Biden Dictates Prices; Dictating Standards; Dictating to Meat

Biden Dictates Prices President Joe Biden tried to position himself in last night’s State of the Union address as the bulwark against the rising tide...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.3975/bushel, up $0.0175 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.3775/bushel, up $0.0925 from yesterday's close.&nb...

Market Commentary: Markets Move Ahead of March WASDE

With the exception of SRW, markets generally closed above overnight levels as short-covering progressed ahead of tomorrow’s USDA March WASDE. There w...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.38/bushel, up $0.0925 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.285/bushel, down $0.025 from yesterday's close. ...

Livestock Roundup: Updates and Highlights

SOTU Tonight is President Biden’s third State of the Union (SOTU) address. It will be interesting to watch how far he goes on food inflation. In 2022...

Food Wins; Stating the Obvious

Food Wins Commercial food workers hate fast line speeds at meat processors because it makes them work harder and reduces the required number of workers. An...

Export Sales

Export Sales and Shipments for February 23-29, 2024. Wheat:  Net sales of 271,100 metric tons (MT) for 2023/2024 were down 17 percent from the previou...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.2875/bushel, up $0.025 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.31/bushel, down $0.2 from yesterday's close. ...

Katy Bar the Door; Pursuing Food Sovereignty; USMCA Expansion

Katy Bar the Door Malaysia had filed a WTO dispute settlement case against the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive, arguing it is prejudicil in limiting...

Peas Please

As noted in today’s Black Sea report, the price of peas in Russia are rising as exports go unfettered by any export tax. Canada is by far the largest...

Black Sea Regional Analysis

Russian Grain Markets: 26 February–1 March 2024 Russian grain markets remained bearish following the global trend exports are the key driver. For sev...

Market Commentary: South American Rains, Export Competition Push CBOT Lower

The CBOT turned lower on Tuesday with wheat leading the way on new contract lows in Paris wheat and aggressive competition from Ukraine and Russia on the e...

USDA Issues New Livestock and Poultry Contracting Rule

USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) released the second of a series of three new Packers and Stockyards Administration marketing rules. Offic...

Cotton is King

At least it is in the U.S. South. While production increased last year in Pakistan and Brazil, USDA predicts that most of the increase in global production...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.2625/bushel, down $0.0375 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.51/bushel, down $0.13 from yesterday's close.&nb...

Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa Regional Analysis

Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA/AFRICA – MEA REGION The Muslim holy month of Ramadan will begin in the region on 11 or 12 Mar...

MC13 Unsurprisingly Disappoints

USTR is spinning that progress was made at the WTO’s ministerial in Abu Dhabi that ended over the weekend, claiming progress on revitalizing the disp...

What is in the Ag Appropriations Bill?

As we reported on Friday, Congress passed and the President signed a short term funding agreement. Moreover, that report advised: Expect a lot of activity...

Hops Market Declines

After a decade of blistering growth, the U.S. domestic beer market declined in 2023. The reasons given include some consumers opting for a healthier, alcoh...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.3/bushel, up $0.0525 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.64/bushel, up $0.0625 from yesterday's close.  M...

Mercosur Regional Analysis

Wheat Wheat is going through a challenging time in Argentina. The decline in prices, both in the local and export markets, has been constant over the last...

CFTC COT Report Analysis

The attached PDF offers graphical depiction and seasonal analysis of managed money and commercial traders' net position in key agricultural commodity marke...

Oilseed Highlights: A Topsy Turvy Week

The Market It was a topsy turvy week from the standpoint that the trend is down, speculators are betting on lower values, increasing their net short positi...

Policy Quick Hits Updates

Appropriations USDA will be open on Monday 4 March. President Biden signed a short-term, stop-gap continuing resolution (CR) appropriations bill passed by...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.2475/bushel, down $0.0475 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.5775/bushel, down $0.185 from yesterday's close...

Market Commentary: Leap Day was a Small Step

Most futures contracts opened even lower than their respective overnight closing lows. Things began to moderate about an hour into trading with grains and...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.295/bushel, up $0.01 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.7625/bushel, up $0.015 from yesterday's close. ...

Export Sales

Export Sales and Shipments for February 16-22, 2024. Wheat:  Net sales of 327,300 metric tons (MT) for 2023/2024 were up 40 percent from the previous...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.285/bushel, up $0.05 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.7475/bushel, down $0.095 from yesterday's close. ...

Europe’s Mantel; Trade-less Trade Advisor

Europe’s Mantel Sans Viande: In three months, France will ban the use of “meat” when referring to meat alternative products. Since profit...

Black Sea Regional Analysis

Russian Grain Markets: 19–23 February 2024 As expected, the Russian grain market remained stable and slightly bearish. Export demand will do the tric...

“Healthy” Food Slows Ag Approps

Last Friday, WPI reported on the status of the appropriations process; Congress has until Friday of this week to pass four appropriations bills, including...

Data versus Rhetoric

Politico reports that President Biden wants to attack the U.S. food industry in his 7 March State of the Union address to Congress. He believes his Super B...

Summary of Futures

May 24 Corn closed at $4.235/bushel, up $0.02 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.8425/bushel, up $0.095 from yesterday's close. ...

Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa Regional Analysis

Regional Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA/AFRICA – MEA REGION Egypt is expected to increase its local wheat purchase price this year du...

Market Commentary: Higher CBOT and Corn Reversal Deny Long-Run Bearish Outlook

The CBOT turned mostly higher to start the week amid some bullish fundamental developments and funds covering shorts after the market’s recent and wi...

Summary of Futures

Mar 24 Corn closed at $4.07/bushel, up $0.0725 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.7475/bushel, up $0.0575 from yesterday's close. ...

Cattle on Feed Report: Placements Higher than Expected

USDA released the monthly Cattle on Feed report on Friday with placements in January, the most difficult category to predict and the only category to diffe...

Mercosur Regional Analysis

Soybeans  Market Overview  Following the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, expectations for increased soybean demand from China were not met, resul...

CFTC COT Report Analysis

The weekly CFTC report was unsurprising in that managed money funds were net sellers through Tuesday’s data reporting period, which obviously coincid...

Cattle on Feed

U.S. cattle on feed totaled 11.8 million head on February 1, 2024 - slightly above Feb 1, 2023. Placements in feedlots during January totaled 1.79 million...

Oilseed Highlights: Short-covering and Sucky Export Sales

The Market Nearing two and a half months of selling by speculators, this week marked fresh lows in the soybean sector. Net shorts are approaching the recor...

Summary of Futures

Mar 24 Corn closed at $3.9975/bushel, down $0.0625 from yesterday's close.  May 24 Wheat closed at $5.69/bushel, down $0.1025 from yesterday's close.&...

Policy Quick Hits

Appropriations Deadline The initial deadline for avoiding a government shutdown is one week from today, 1 March.  By that time, Congress needs to pass...

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