World Perspectives

Trade Deficit Down, Job Creation Up: A Look Under the Hood

Two recent economic reports have generated attention: the November balance of payments trade deficit and the December payroll report. There are tea leaves to be read for both.    First, the trade deficit for all goods and services in November was down 2 percent, to $63.2 billion. The October deficit was revised up marginally to $64.5 billion from the initial report of $64.3 billion. The pre-report expectation was an increased deficit of $65 billion. Of course, as WPI frequently reminds, it is the total value of trade – imports plus exports – not the deficit or surplus, that shows the level of economic activity in the economy. In the GDP equation, imports are subtracted from exports not because they hurt domestic econo...

WPI on Twitter

Related Articles
feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Weather Worries Nearing a Ceiling

Large supplies and a strong dollar took their toll this week on corn and soybeans, but they still managed to outperform. Weather worries pushed wheat higher for a seventh straight session, and pork finally took a fall.  There was high volume trading in corn today but without any strong fee...

soy-oilseeds

Oilseed Highlights: Up, Despite Grey Clouds

The Market Brazil has been winning the soybean export war, and imported biodiesel feedstock threatens domestic crush margins, but Chicago trading this week appeared to shake off such concerns. July soybeans traded lower for the past three trading sessions but larger gains achieved at the beginn...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Jul 24 Corn closed at $4.5/bushel, down $0.02 from yesterday's close.  Jul 24 Wheat closed at $6.2225/bushel, up $0.0175 from yesterday's close.  Jul 24 Soybeans closed at $11.7725/bushel, down $0.025 from yesterday's close.  Jul 24 Soymeal closed at $344.7/short ton, down $2.9 f...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Weather Worries Nearing a Ceiling

Large supplies and a strong dollar took their toll this week on corn and soybeans, but they still managed to outperform. Weather worries pushed wheat higher for a seventh straight session, and pork finally took a fall.  There was high volume trading in corn today but without any strong fee...

soy-oilseeds

Oilseed Highlights: Up, Despite Grey Clouds

The Market Brazil has been winning the soybean export war, and imported biodiesel feedstock threatens domestic crush margins, but Chicago trading this week appeared to shake off such concerns. July soybeans traded lower for the past three trading sessions but larger gains achieved at the beginn...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Jul 24 Corn closed at $4.5/bushel, down $0.02 from yesterday's close.  Jul 24 Wheat closed at $6.2225/bushel, up $0.0175 from yesterday's close.  Jul 24 Soybeans closed at $11.7725/bushel, down $0.025 from yesterday's close.  Jul 24 Soymeal closed at $344.7/short ton, down $2.9 f...

Q1 GDP Comes in Low, Interest Rate Expected to Stay High

The Q1 2024 GDP was 1.6 percent, well below the pre-report consensus expectation of 2.4 percent, and down from 3.1 percent in Q1 2023 and 3.4 percent in Q4 2023. That rate was the slowest in almost two years, dating back to Q2 2022.  Recall that in the 2 February Ag Perspectives report on...

Image
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.

Search World Perspectives

Sign In to World Perspectives

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up