Cool Source of Information – USDA reports

In the past week, we just had an assignment with a question where we needed to examine the USDA reports on Crop Production over a historical time period and see whether there’s link between the shocks of futures prices and the released information.  What’s more interesting is that a new UDSA report on quarterly Grain Stocks was released on the past Friday and caused the corn, wheat, soybeans futures prices to spike up.

I didn’t pay attention to USDA (http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome) prior to the assignment or the Friday shocks.  Its official information really plays a major role in affecting the futures prices.  The daily news prior to the official reports could be affecting the futures price too but those are more like expectations / estimations, and the official reports are stating more accurately about the situations supported by government statistical data.  Sometimes, if there’s large discrepancy between the estimations and the actual situation, it would probably cause a turning point for the futures prices.  It’s worthwhile studying this USDA site further since I am not sure of what other information it offers.

I have been using the sites I referred to in the previous week.  I should start looking for more reliable sources for information.