General Comments This was not a pretty day in the agricultural commodity markets. Corn, wheat and soybean prices were slightly lower overnight, but those losses quickly accelerated this morning when fund selling took over the soymeal and soybean futures, eventually spilling over into corn and wheat. There were several reasons talked about for the sell-off, including:
Increased farmer selling over the weekend A better (wetter) forecast for Argentina Talk that China was going to auction some soybean reserves at below-market prices
We suspect the real reason for the selling was primarily technical in nature. November soybeans dropped to within 7-8 cents of recent lows, and December corn fell to new contract lows. That prompted mo...
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...
