How grain and soy markets react to their own set of uncertainties often ignores what financial markets may be doing.Uncertainty almost always leads to volatility for the world's financial and commodity markets. We have seen this truism demonstrated once again during the last 10 days, culminating with yesterday's "crash and burn" action of world stock markets. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 8.5 percent, while Japanese and European stock markets dropped as much as 5 percent. After a wild day that had it down 1,000 points in early trading, the Dow recovered most of that before slumping again to close down 588 points or 3.6 percent. The S&P 500 lost 3.9 percent.Today the Shanghai Index dropped 7.6 percent. However, China's central bank r...
What You Need to Know Today: A third U.S. border crossing (Columbus, New Mexico) has reopened to Mexican cattle imports following nearly two years of restrictions related to New World screwworm. The reopening could gradually improve feeder cattle availability, although more than 60 confi...
Yesterday, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) released a new report of negotiated cash purchases of cattle under the mandatory price report. The report included Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas. The goal of the report was to solve the confidentiality issues e...
Key Takeaways: U.S. soybean crushing began in 1911 and saw its most rapid expansion during the 1930s amid the broader agricultural and technology revolutions of the time. After peaking in the early 2000s, the soybean crushing industry went through a downturn as poor crush margins forced...
From WPI Consulting
Weighing in on strategic realignment
WPI’s team was retained by the governing board of a U.S. industry organization to review a decision, reached by vote, to invest significant assets into the development and management of an export trading company. WPI’s team conducted a formal review of this decision and concluded that the current level of market saturation would limit the benefits of the investment. Based on WPI’s analysis and recommended actions, the board subsequently reversed its decision and undertook a strategic planning effort to identify more impactful investments. On behalf of numerous clients, WPI has not only assisted in identifying strategic paths but also advised their implementation.