The CBOT was sharply lower on Tuesday with any attempt at a rally quickly finding eager and sustained selling pressure. There was no real fundamental catalyst for the day’s selling from an agricultural perspective, rather the day’s weakness stemmed from widespread risk-off trade amid turbulent macro markets as investors and funds sought to reduce risk exposure. The fact that wheat and corn have been in bearish trends for the last few weeks didn’t help support markets either. All in all, it was one of those days where crop fundamentals didn’t matter as much as traders’ risk preferences and position adjustments. The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates 25 bps in its Wednesday meeting wi...
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.