Once upon a time, grain and soy futures market spreads were major topics for discussion and analysis. However, it seems that interest in futures spreads has languished compared to the “old days.” Market spreads were actively traded by speculators in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. There was a small cadre of traders in the corn, soybean and wheat pits who specialized in spread trading either as speculation for their own account or as brokers executing orders from clients. Our sense is that interest in spread trading declined as speculation in grain markets became increasingly concentrated in managed money funds rather than in the hands of individual traders. The growing volume of trade based on chart trading and technical trading pr...
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.