USDA Reports Affect the Stock Market, Too

We document that the stock prices of food-sector firms react to USDA news. The economic and statistical significance of the effect depends on the commodity, type of scheduled USDA report, and direction and extent to which the USDA information surprises the market. Individual stock price responses to USDA news differ between firms on the input-side vs. firms on the output-side of agricultural (farm) production, based on which component of the firm’s cash-flow expectations (costs or revenues) and which variable (commodity price or expected firm output) is impacted by the news. Planted Area surprises have the largest effect for both subsets of firms (ag-as-inputs and ag-as-output), followed by Grain Stocks news—with the effects having the expected sign. In contrast, WASDE surprises have very modest and mixed impacts on food-sector stock returns. Our findings establish that USDA announcements have an impact well beyond their recognized relevance to commodity markets