Walter is a commodity analyst whose expertise includes fundamental and quantitative research for grains, oilseeds and livestock with an emphasis on financial market hedging and proprietary trading activities.
With new-crop Dec 2020 corn setting a new life of contract low this week at $3.70, there was seemingly little news to support a quick turnaround. The global coronavirus pandemic, an oil market that is imploding—and, on top of that, an expectation that 2020 U.S. corn supplies will be growing—all seem
The U.S. pork export program has always been a viable demand source for the U.S. hog complex. Mexico, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Canada have been consistently reliable import/export markets for U.S. pork. From 2015 until mid-2019, mainland China was importing a steady volume of U.S. pork. Since the
A combination of ideal growing conditions and expanded planted acres have helped propel Brazilian soybean harvest projections to near record levels. And Brazilian corn is expected to match the record crop set last year. Brazil’s position as the largest soybean exporter and second largest corn export
For most of the 2019/20 marketing year, U.S. corn and soybean export values have been uncompetitive in the global export market. A strong dollar combined with bumper corn crops in Argentina, Brazil and Ukraine have worked against and slowed U.S. exports for most of the current marketing year. Over t
The USDA’s January Crop Production report represents the government’s final yield, harvested acres and production figures for corn and soybeans. Given the delayed corn harvest this year, the USDA stated in the January Crop Production report that they will be “recontacting” corn producers in North an
On Wednesday, January 15, President Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu met in Washington, D.C., to sign the first component of a multi-stage trade agreement between the two nations. More commonly known as the Phase 1 Trade Agreement, the deal seeks to address some of the major issues that have cause
At Farmers Business Network℠ , we believe that the January 10 WASDE report was neutral to slightly bearish for corn and soybeans as the pre-report estimates were looking for larger reductions in the production and ending stocks figures than the USDA reported. We believe that the USDA’s all-wheat and
The soybean oil futures curve has appreciated since the beginning of December and has been led by the January contract, which has risen by 13 percent to its highest level in a year. The contraction of vegetable oil supplies in Indonesia, Malaysia, the EU and Australia have helped provide some suppor
Argentina has a long history of taxing agricultural exports to generate revenue. When former Argentine president Mauricio Macri was elected to office in late 2015 under centric reformist agenda, export taxes for Argentine agricultural commodities declined. The result was a sharp increase in harveste
Unrelenting large weekly production runs, record-level stocks, compressed industry-wide margins and meddlesome politics in Washington, D.C. contributed to largely negative effects on U.S. ethanol for most of the 2018/19 marketing year. By late summer, the industry started to take necessary steps tow