Can commodities actually be worth less than $0.00? After Monday’s wild trade in the CME May Crude Oil futures contract, we guess they can. As anyone interested in the oil market knows, demand for crude oil and refined energy products have been declining for months. However, worldwide reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic sharply accelerated that decline. Many industries reduced or shut down their production activities, drivers stopped driving their SUV’s and airlines stopped flying their planes. OPEC/Russia agreed to cut production, but not by nearly enough to stop the growing worldwide glut of crude oil supplies. In the face of this fundamentally very bearish situation, crude oil prices had plunged to levels not seen in many years...
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.