Grain markets are still searching for long-term direction while the livestock markets have found theirs: down. A combination of large supplies and seasonal trends is pressuring cattle and hog prices and will continue to do so in the near-term. Grains markets are feeling the bullish pulses of poor weather in parts of the world but also the weight of lackluster trade prospects. Soybeans are, of course, especially sensitive to trade agreement updates and have been whipsawed by hopes of a resolution to the U.S.-China kerfuffle and lack of measurable progress. Beyond the walls of the CME/CBOT, U.S. equities are lower (S&P 500 off 1 percent and the Dow down a similar amount) while the CBOE VIX index is up 2 points to 14.84. COME...
What You Need to Know Today: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva secured reelection on Sunday, defeating right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro despite trailing in the first round of voting. The surprise victory triggered a sharp selloff in Brazilian financial market...
The 2026 midterm elections are a week from tomorrow, but early voting has been taking place for weeks. At stake is control of Congress, including the House of Representatives, where all 435 seats are contested, and the Senate, where approximately one-third of the seats are up for election. Farm...
Key Takeaways: Total U.S. crop acres (excluding hay) are forecast to expand fractionally this year due to greater oilseed crop and winter wheat plantings. One of the key drivers of this year’s crop outlook is input costs, and crops with a lower cost profile have an advantage in producers...
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.