Tidbits, Retail Inflation, War Budget, Wheat Crops, Export Sales 12/19/25
- Wright team
- 12 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Tidbits
Flash sale: Yesterday morning, the USDA announced the sale of 114,000 of old crop soybeans to unknown.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures inflation at the retail level. Yesterday’s U.S. CPI number of 2.7% annual inflation rate surprised the markets, which expected an annual inflation rate of 3.1%. Lower inflation increases the probability of lower interest rates which is good for all working-class people and businesses, but it also reduces demand for U.S. dollars by foreign investors to buy U.S. interest bearing bonds. A weaker dollar makes your farm production more competitive in the world marketplace. This marks the biggest drop in U.S. inflation since March. For a comparison, annual CPI in November was 2.4% in the EU, 2.9% in Canada, 6.6% in Russia, 4.5% in Brazil, and 0.7% in China.
U.S. initial unemployment claims were almost as expected at 224,000 for the week ended December 13, down 13,000 from the prior week, the four-week average is 217,500. The unemployment rate was 4.6% in November. Nonfarm payrolls rose 64,000 in November.
The U.S. Congress yesterday voted overwhelmingly to advance a $901 billion bill setting policy for the Pentagon. The package included $400 million to Ukraine each of the next two years for the supply of American weapons. The legislation also included $175 million to support the defense of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. It prohibits reducing the number of U.S. troops in Europe below 76,000.
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