General Comments It was a black and blue Friday for equity and commodity markets with both trading lower to sharply lower. CNBC reported today that more money flowed into equity markets this week than any other week in history ($26 billion). Commodity markets felt like a good chunk of that money flow was leaving. Soybeans had the first losing week in seven weeks. Technical signals were screaming sell. Only livestock markets were slightly higher on the prospect for cheaper feed and better margins.We also can't forget that the U.S. corn and soybean harvests are about to get underway and not many want to be long heading into harvest. Actual harvest yield reports across the guts of the Corn Belt remain scarce. The news reports better corn...
As predicted, the Federal Reserve held rates steady at the last meeting before the midterm elections, likely in part because of the election (see WPI 19 October and 22 September). The decision comes at the tail end of a midterm election cycle that has been marked by the two parties campaigning...
Key Takeaways: WPI’s new EU rapeseed crushing margin models point to weaker processing returns over the next four months due to higher rapeseed procurement costs and weaker product values. Statistical forecasts call for German crushing margins to decline from €181/MT to €...
Key Takeaways: The tariff burden rose sharply in 2025 and 2026: the effective rate on imports in HTS Chapters 1–24 increased from 1.53 percent in 2024 to 6.11 percent in 2025, before averaging 5.68 percent in January–August 2026. Headline rates tell only part of the story: exemptio...
From WPI Consulting
Accountability and a comprehensive approach to export programming
WPI’s team helped construct a strategic approach to develop, implement, and track promotional activities in 8 key regions across the globe for an agricultural export association. With continued progress measurement and strategic advisory services from WPI, the association has seen its ROI from investments in promotional programming increase by 44 percent over the past 5 years. Not only does this type of holistic approach to organizational strategy provide measurable results to track and analyze, it fosters top-down and bottom-up organizational accountability.