The CBOT and broader financial/macroeconomic markets reflected uncertainty and rising geopolitical risks on Tuesday with traders adopting a strong “risk off” mentality. Rising tensions in the Middle East with Iran and Israel’s proxy fight threatening to dissolve into an open war sent crude oil futures higher and CBOT markets lower as traders headed for the exit in advance of what looks like looming volatility. There was little fresh fundamental news for the grain markets on Tuesday, so the geopolitically motivated trade drove much of the day’s action. The only bright spot – aside from oil – was in the livestock markets where cattle futures recovered a bit from Monday’s selloff and hog futures exten...
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.