General Comments Grain and soy futures played on both sides of Tuesday's closes without much in the way of direction during overnight trading and again during the day session. Price movement was limited and stuck within narrow trading ranges. Soybeans traded in a 10-12 cent range, while corn's range was 6-7 cents and CME wheat stayed within a 7-8 cent price band. However, only corn managed to finish on the plus side for the day and then by only about 2 cents. Volume was light to moderate. From a macro point of view, the government shutdown, talk about a possible U.S. default and how markets might suffer if it were to occur certainly do not encourage adventuresome trading. From a narrower point of view, markets have now gone for over a...
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
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.