Note: CME grain and soy markets are closed tomorrow (Friday) and will re-open Easter Sunday evening. U.S. government offices will be open tomorrow, however, and regularly scheduled reports such as the CFTC’s Commitment of Traders (COT) report will be released then. U.S trade negotiators announced that the Lighthizer/Mnuchin trade negotiating team will go to Beijing the week of 29 April for further face-to-face discussions, and the Chinese trade delegation will return to Washington the following week. The hope now is that an agreement can be reached in time for signing in late May or early June. The endgame that Treasury Secretary Mnuchin touted two weeks ago has now gone into extra innings. Grain markets saw limited price action ove...
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.