CBOT markets were mostly mixed in quiet trade overnight, but that tenor changed quickly once the day session started. The Crop Progress report initially appeared supportive for the major markets with planting slowing for corn and soybeans and corn and spring wheat conditions coming in below expectations. Of those factors, only the spring wheat issue proved consequential enough to support futures, and corn and the soy complex pushed lower. The reason for the soy complex weakness was primarily a pullback in soyoil futures, but also generally favorable planting and emergence progress and a beneficial weather outlook. The same was true for corn, which helped pressure that market for the day. Overall, the day saw funds reemerge as net sellers wi...
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.