The CFTC was mostly lower to end the week with funds emerging as profit-takers in corn, soybeans, and Chicago wheat. The soyoil market scored a new contract high on news of a palm oil export ban from Indonesia, however, and the KCBT wheat market strengthened on continued poor weather forecasts for the U.S. southern Plains. Funds were net buyers of soyoil on Friday, adding some 12,000 contracts to their long position. For every other major ag product, however, they were net sellers. Funds liquidated 17,000 contracts of corn, 3,000 contracts of wheat, 12,000 contracts of soybeans, and 8,000 contracts of soymeal. Notably, open interest in the major ag products continues to decline as profit taking and position liquidation have gained po...
What You Need to Know Today: The cattle market rebounded sharply this week, with January feeder cattle futures gaining $16.98/cwt and February live cattle futures advancing $7.60/cwt since last Friday. Tyson Foods' plans to restore a second processing shift at its Amarillo, Texas, facili...
Tuesday’s CPI report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed inflation roaring back stronger than expected in October. That probably locks in another rate hike – which was expected anyway – at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in December. Consumer pric...
Key Takeaways: The rationale for farm programs has changed significantly from their original intentions. Farmers’ incomes have grown sharply and have surpassed non-farm incomes beginning in the 1970s. Current farm programs are complex and focus on supporting risk management, environmenta...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.