U.S. economy

Farmers are typically an optimistic bunch, but unfortunately, many things that control their success or failure are beyond their control.  For example, the health of the U.S. and foreign economies has a direct impact on what farmers can do year in and year out.  Chris V...

Oil prices moved higher in Monday’s trade, spurred primarily by OPEC’s recent announcement that it would increase production next month by over 400,000 barrels.  While that is a hefty increase, Patrick DeHaan with Gasbuddy.com said the announce...

As part of last week's National Ag Day, a broad range of 36 food and agriculture organizations collaborated to produce the 9th annual Feeding the Economy Report.  One of the groups sponsoring the report is the Corn Refiners Association, and CRA President and John Bode said the report comes to some important conclusions.  ...

We’re starting to sound like a broken record, but oil prices really haven’t moved that much over the past week or so.  Patrick DeHaan with Gasbuddy.com said a barrel of West Texas Crude has traded in the high-$60 to low-$70 range since Thanksgiving.  And he doesn’t expe...

To say 2024 has been challenging for farmers and the agricultural sector may be an understatement.   “It has been interesting, lots of unexpected turns and uncertainty, and it's going to set us up for even more uncertainty and surprises into 2025," noted Dave Widmar, economist and managing partner with Agricultural Economic Insights.  "It's a ...

U.S. dock workers and port operators reported Thursday that they had reached a tentative deal, immediately ending the crippling three-day strike that shut down shipping on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast.  American Farm Bureau Economist Danny Munch said while the strike was only three-days in length, the impact on trade has already been felt. He said ...

To say oil prices have been volatile to start the month of August may be a bit of an understatement.  After dropping notably, oil prices rallied in the past week to nearly $80 per barrel.   “Week before last, we saw a better than expected jobless figure that added to concerns that potentially we wouldn't see the Fed cut interest rates," noted Patrick DeHaan is with GasBuddy.com.  "And th

U.S. agriculture is currently running a trade deficit of almost $19 billion and growing.  And while some say this reflects a weak noncompetitive American farm sector, one expert says that doesn’t tell the whole story.   “To look at the trade balance and say it's negative, so we're being outcompeted. It's, it's really oversim...

It’s been a downward week for oil prices, with prices dropping roughly $10 per barrel in the past seven days.  West Texas Crude was trading in the mid-$60 range in Monday’s action.  Patrick DeHaan with GasBuddy said last week, oil investors were concerned about the health of the U.S. economy.  He noted that conc...

Oil prices continue to soften, not on news from China, not because of the on-going war in Ukraine, but concerns over the U.S. economy.  Patrick DeHaan with GasBuddy said investors are concerned about everything from Wall Street to Main Street.   “...