The CBOT ended sharply lower on Monday with corn and wheat leading the downside move. Both markets had achieved strongly overbought levels last week and were ripe for a corrective selloff. Funds were net sellers as they pare positions ahead of this week’s WASDE report. Most analysts expect the WASDE to be neutral/bearish (though the report is often volatile) and funds are paring length on that outlook. For the day, funds are believed to have sold some 20,000 contracts of corn and 15,000 contracts of wheat. Funds were relatively flat soybeans but likely sold 10,000 contracts or so. End-user pricing was notably absent as few buyers were willing to chase the market higher into fresh contract highs. WPI looks for the May WAS...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.