“When you dig another out of their troubles, you find a place to bury your own.”

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 01, 2015

Morning Summary: Stock prices are slightly higher across the globe this morning, as crude oil moves back up above $46 per barrel on increased tensions in the Middle East, specifically Russian jets making their first aerial strikes in Syria. The East Coast is bracing as hurricane “Joaquin” has been upgraded to a “Category-3” with winds now exceed 125 mph. It is also worth noting that Washington successful voted to keep the U.S. Govern-ment open and funded through Dec 11th, from that point forward who knows??? I heard talk from several political analyst who believe the battle in Washington could really heat up in December and perhaps push all the way into Christmas. Interestingly the Fed’s De-cember meeting is scheduled for the 15th and 16th. This is now making some inside the trade a bit more nervous, as they worry the Fed might feel more pressured and compelled to make a move during their October meeting, rather than waiting until December when Washington could once again be under fire. As we move into the fourth and final quarter of 2015, investors will be keeping a close eye on earnings. Keep in mind, profits for S&P 500 company’s declined -0.7% in Q2, so another decline in Q3 would be the first back to back quarterly losses since 2009. For today, U.S. investors will be anxious to see if Motor Vehicle Sales have been able to maintain their impressive strength. Analysts are expecting the annual rate to dip slightly to 17.5 million from last month’s 10-year high of 17.8 mil-lion. On a more problematic note, today also brings PMI Manufacturing which has strug-gled to stay in expansion territory amid weak exports. Construction Spending for August is also due out and seen rising +0.6% following a nice +0.7% gain in July. Globally, both Chinese and European manufacturing data. Remember, the Chinese are on vacation for a week so the heavy overnight volatility and headwinds may temporarily subside. Just be careful thinking the storm is completely over or behind us...

Crude Oil Down -24% For The Quarter: U.S. crude oil futures closed out the quar-ter down -24%. Year-to-date, they’re faring a bit better, down just over -15%, but the steep declines are still pretty shocking. News of Russia launching airstrikes in Syria and impending Hurricane Joaquin that could damage East Coast energy infrastructure did nothing to boost prices yesterday either. It didn’t help that the U.S. Energy Infor-mation Agency reported a nearly 4 million barrel increase in crude inventories for last week, the first time they’ve risen in three weeks. Refinery maintenance season is in full swing though, with capacity dropping slightly to 89.8% from 90.9% the week be-fore. Domestic oil production did decline though to about 9.1 million barrels per day, a drop of 40,000 barrels from the week before. Gasoline inventories rose 3.3 million barrels, which was also a disappointment as most analysts had been expecting a small decrease.

Russian Jets Start Airstrikes In Syria... Could There Be Fallout? Russian leaders announced that they were launching their first airstrikes against ISIS ground targets. Some senior U.S. intelligence officials on the other hand are somewhat confused, say-ing they don’t see any real significance in the Russian airstrike near the city of Homs and that it “has no strategic purpose” in terms of combating ISIS. This now has the trade and others wondering about Putins real intentions. Keep in mind U.S. leaders have reiterated that our fight against ISIS should not be confused with any support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Secretary of State John Kerry recently added, “We have also made clear that we would have grave concerns should Russia strike areas where ISIS and al Qaeda affiliated targets are not operating. Strikes of that kind would question Russia’s real intentions -- fighting ISIS or protecting the Assad regime”. Now what??? The good news is the Russian planes didn’t appear to be flying in areas where the U.S. was operating. It was recently reported that a U.S. led coalition has already conducted about 3,000 airstrikes against ISIS and that efforts would dramatically in-crease in the days ahead.

Weather is focusing on Hurricane Joaquin as the odds are increasing for significant and potentially catastrophic flood, wind, and coastal erosion event in portions of the middle and northern Atlantic States. They are talking about rainfall totals of at least 5 to 10 inches in New England, leading to widespread flooding. The effects could be substantial even if Joaquin does not make landfall, but a hurricane moving inland during the weekend might lead to major coastal damage reminiscent of Hurricane Isabel (2003) or Superstorm San-dy (2012). Midwest showers will be limited to the western edge of the belt and far eastern Ohio Valley from this weekend into early next week, with short bursts in the middle of next week in parts of Nebraska, Iowa and the Great Lakes. Scattered cool shots over the next 2 weeks look to be minimal, keeping any concerns over Midwest frost at a minimum and iso-lated to the far north. As for Plains wheat, scattered showers into the weekend will bring a bit of relief to dry areas in the western third of the belt. We will continue the monitor the situation happening in the most southwestern portion of the Wheat belt during October, as dryness may cause some establishment issues. The 6 to 10 day outlook for October 5 - 9 calls for the likelihood of near to above normal temperatures and precipitation across most of the country. Cooler than normal conditions will be limited to an area stretching from the upper Midwest to the interior Southeast, while drier than normal weather will be confined to the lower Southeast.

Cooler October Expected: We have an update to the October temperature outlook just released yesterday by the Weather Channel Professional Division. They are calling for a cooler than average October expected in parts of the South and East while the Northwest sees much above-average temperatures. This October forecast resembles the type of temperature pattern that is expected late this fall into winter due to El Niño’s influence.

Corn traders see very little reason to get excited as the USDA makes only a slight adjust-ment to stocks to 1.73 billion. The bears however continue to point to the fact total corn stocks are up about 41% vs. levels seen last September. It was also reported that 593 mil-lion bushels were thought to be stored “on farms,” up 28 percent from a year earlier. “Off-farm” stocks, were estimated at at 1.14 billion bushels, up 48 percent from a year ago. As for new-crop production, it feels to me like the trade is wanting to work the national yield a bit lower, perhaps in the 164 to 165 range. As for demand, ethanol production con-tinues to surprise many inside the trade. Yesterday’s data showed production at 943,000 barrels per day vs. 881,000 barrels per day last year at this time. Also good news is the fact ethanol stocks slipped a bit from 18.9 down to 18.8 million barrels. I’ve been hear-ing some talk that with global sugar prices pushing higher and some complications inside Brazil, U.S. ethanol production might remain stronger than many have forecast. There’s also some rumors and whispers that the Chinese have closed a couple of plants, sighting it’s simply much cheaper to import U.S. or South American ethanol rather than paying the hefty minimums to Chinese producers for corn supply. Keep in mind we are also con-tinuing to see strong demand for U.S. gasoline at the pump. Meaning ethanol production might hang in there better than most have been thinking. Quarterly feed usage is also a bit stronger than the trade had been anticipating, at about 100 million bushels larger than last year. From a technical perspective, corn continues to have trouble breaking through the $3.95 area.

Soybean bulls were excited to see last years yield reduced from 47.8 down to 47.5 bushels per acre, hence production lowered by almost -42 million bushels. It’s also worth noting that planted area was revised down -425,000 acres to 83.3 million acres, and har-vested area was revised down -470,000 acres to 82.6 million acres. The bulls were also excited to see stocks reported at 191.4 million vs. the trade estimate of around 205 million bushels. The bears however are quick to point out even though stocks were lower by 19 million bushels, they are still up about 108% from the September 2014 levels. Soybean stocks stored “on farms” totaled 49.7 million bushels, up 133 percent from a year ago. “Off-farm” stocks, at 142 million bushels, are up 101 percent from last September. Obvi-ously the recent round of data will provide fuel for the bulls who want to argue the USDA needs to lower their new-crop ending stock estimate in the upcoming November 9th re-port. The bulls are also hoping to see the USDA reduce their new-crop acreage estimate as well. Unfortunately, the bears are thinking the USDA could offset the acreage reduction by a slight bump higher in yield. Especially since we are hearing report after report of bet-ter than excepted yields both to the West and the East. They are also thinking the recent reduction in stocks and the cut in last years production could be offset by cutting the cur-rent new-crop export estimate. The graphic below provided by the USDA is somewhat sell-descriptive and an easy to interpret piece of evidence being passed around by the bears.

Wheat bulls were happy to see production down more than many in the trade had been anticipating. The 2015 U.S. winter wheat yield was reported at 42.5 bushels per acre, an 8 year low, while acres are at a 5 year low. Unfortunately, even with the larger than ex-pected reductions in most all wheat classes, the USDA is still forecasting a total harvest of 2.051 billion bushels, a number that is slightly higher than last years 2.062 billion bushel harvest. On a global perspective, Russia is supposedly reducing its export tariff, but at the same time I’m hearing they are raising their domestic intervention price by an even larger amount. In other words, both the bulls and the bears can argue its a win. Below are few more interesting facts that were released by the USDA in yesterdays report:

• On-farm wheat stocks are estimated at 647 million bushels, down 9 percent from last September. Off-farm stocks, at 1.44 billion bushels, are up 21 percent from a year ago.

• Wheat Feeding for the quarter seemed to be about 300 million bushel. Which is up by about 40 million bushels form last year.

• HRW stocks suggest 6/16 US dvancing over 100 mb vs. 6/15, HRW stocks stable at just over 200 mb. Planted acreage was down from 2014 in most of the major Hard Red Winter (HRW) growing States. Particularly large decreases occurred in Colorado, Kan-sas, Montana, and North Dakota. Harvested acres were up across the Southern HRW region, with large increases in Oklahoma and Texas compared with 2014. Nationally, HRW production totaled 827 million bushels, up 12 percent from 2014.

• SRW stocks down 25 mb to 125 mb area and white wheat stocks down over 50 mb to only 15 mb. In the Soft Red Winter (SRW) growing area, planted and harvested acre-age decreases from 2014 were experienced throughout most of the region. SRW pro-duction totaled 359 million bushels, down 21 percent from 2014.

• White winter production totaled 184 million bushels, up slightly from the previous year. Harvested acreage in the Pacific Northwest (Idaho, Oregon, and Washington) was down three percent from 2014. Yields were up from last year in Idaho and Washington.

• Other spring wheat: Production for 2015 is estimated at 599 million bushels, up less than 1 percent from the 2014 total. Harvested area totaled 12.9 million acres, up 2 percent from 2014. The United States yield is estimated at 46.3 bushels per acre, down 0.4 bushel below the 2014 average yield. Of the total production, 564 million bushels are Hard Red Spring wheat, up 2 percent from 2014. Record high yields are estimated in North Dakota and Minnesota.

• Durum wheat: Production for 2015 is estimated at 82.5 million bushels, up 53 per-cent from the revised 2014 total. Grain area harvested totaled 1.90 million acres, up 41 percent from the previous year. The United States yield is estimated at 43.5 bushels per acre, up 3.3 bushels from 2014. Production in North Dakota, the largest Durum-producing State, is up 50 percent from 2014. Durum wheat production in Montana for 2015 represents a record high for the State. A record high yield is estimated in North Dakota for 2015.

Sorghum: Interestingly, old crop grain sorghum stored in all positions on September 1, 2015 totaled 18.4 million bushels, down 46 percent from a year ago. On-farm stocks, at 1.90 million bushels, are down 3 percent from last year. Off-farm stocks, at 16.5 million bushels, are down 49 percent from September 1, 2014. The June - August 2015 indicated disappearance from all positions is 15.9 million bushels, down 73 percent from the same period a year ago.

Barley: Production is estimated at 214 million bushels, up 18 percent from the revised 2014 total. Average yield per acre, at 68.9 bushels, is down 3.8 bushels from the previ-ous year. Producers seeded 3.56 million acres in 2015, up 17 percent from last year. Har-vested area, at 3.11 million acres, is up 25 percent from 2014.

Oats: Production in 2015 is estimated at 89.5 million bushels, up 27 percent from the re-vised 2014 total of 70.2 million bushels. Yield is estimated at 70.2 bushels per acre, up 2.3 bushels from the previous year, and represents a new record high for the United States. Harvested area, at 1.28 million acres, is 23 percent above the previous year. Record low acres were harvested in California, Indiana, South Carolina, Oregon, and Utah.

*For More Information & Details Visit The USDA’s NASS 2015 Small Grains Summary

** Trade now waiting for the FC Stone numbers, which are thought to be out today after the close and the latest Informa estimates, thought to be out tomorrow.

> USDA Set To Release Oilseed Crushings Report: Just a reminder, the USDA will pro-vide the first look at the U.S. soybean crush in four years today. The U.S. Census Bureau was the last agency to track the data, but discontinued the report in 2011 due to budget cuts. The Oilseed Crushings report is due out at 2 p.m. CST today and can be found HERE.

> Ethanol Production Week Ending September 25: Weekly ethanol production aver-aged 943,000 barrels per day, up +0.53% from last week and up +7.04% compared to last year. Stocks fell to 18.782 million barrels, down -0.62% from last week and down -0.24% from last year. Total corn usage was estimated at 99.02 million bushels.

> Brazilian Farmers Concerned About Ban On Second Crop Soybeans: Farmers in the Brazilian state of Parana are concerned about the state government’s consideration of a new law that would likely ban the planting of second crop soybeans. The law proposal aims to stop the proliferation of Asian Rust in the state after recent studies showed that a lack of rotation was the main reason for outbreaks. Current rules don’t allow soybeans to be planted from June 15 through September 15, but the new rule would push the start of the ban back to May.

> EU Raises Wheat Production Estimate: The European Commission raise the bloc’s

2015-16 soft wheat production to 144.6 million metric tons from a previous estimate of 140.7 million and compared to last season’s 148.7 million. However, export estimates were lowered slightly to 27.9 MMT compared to last month’s forecast of 28.9 MMT and versus last season’s exports of 32.5 MMT. 2015-16 ending stocks are now pegged at 14.482 MMT, up from 10.633 MMT last season.

> Germany Will Opt Out Of GMO Crops: Germany’s Ag Minister has told the EU that it will not permit the cultivation of GMO crops within its borders, exercising its right to opt out of allowing them under new EU rules passed earlier this year. Countries are supposed to formally notify the EU Commission of their decision by October 3, but a draft law still working its way through Germany’s parliament is unlikely to be sorted by the deadline. There is apparently some disagreement whether the ban should be enforced at the state or federal level.

> High Prices Keep Lid On India’s Soymeal Exports: Indian soybean processors tell Reuters that they are struggling to lock in new soymeal export deals. Local supplies are said to currently be $60-$70 higher than South American supplies. Weaker currencies in main producers Brazil and Argentina, copled with lower Indian production for the second straight year, have dented Indian exports of soymeal. By this time last year, India already had half a million metric tons under contract.

> Beef Industry Warms Up To TPP: U.S. cattle producers are preparing for a TPP vic-tory and expect to make a concerted push for the pact on the Hill if it’s completed this week, an industry official told Politico. “We have a 38.5 percent tariff in Japan right now,” said Kent Bacus, associate director of legislative affairs at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. “With TPP, whatever that final deal is, it will be better than what we have now.” He could not confirm a Japanese news report that Japan would cut its beef duty to 27.5 percent upon entry of the agreement, then reduce it to 15 percent after 10 years and 9 percent after 15 years. From the beef industry’s perspective, it’s important to get an agreement because Australia already has wrapped up a free-trade deal with Japan, put-ting U.S. beef exporters at a disadvantage.

> Former MO Senator Launches Pro-RFS Group: Former Senator Jim Talent of Mis-souri announced the launch of Americans for Energy Security and Innovation, a 501(c)(4) dedicated to supporting the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). “I believe that biofuels are the most feasible replacement for oil as automobile fuel, and that we need a strong RFS so that private investors can develop the biofuels industry with adequate assurance that their potential market won’t be destroyed by manipulations from the foreign oil cartel,” Talent said in a statement.

> Americans REALLY Love Pumpkin: Sales of pumpkin products have grown 79% since 2011, hitting $361 million in 2014 — and analysts expect further growth this year. According to Nielsen, it’s not just pumpkin pie filling and pumpkin spice lattes that we’re spending the big bucks on. Americans spend $13 million on pumpkin dog food, $11 mil-lion on pumpkin yogurt and $5 million on pumpkin-flavored milk. “Pumpkin isn’t just for pie filling anymore — pumpkin flavored cream and coffee are two large growth drivers of pumpkin flavoring.” But to really illustrate how pumpkin-crazy we are, consider these figure - Americans spent over $1 million on pumpkin toothpaste and just under $1 million on both pumpkin pasta sauce and pumpkin gum last year! Apparently, we don’t want to make much of this stuff ourselves though. Fresh pumpkin sales have fallen from $48.1

million in 2011 to $39.5 million in 2014. (Source: Nielsen)

North eastern Indiana – We are having one of our worst crops ever for both corn and beans. However, if you go about 60 miles north they are having some of the best yields they’ve seen in years. We are on low lying ground and it did not matter if we planted early or late, the crops never recovered from all the rain. I’m selling everything out of the field this year and not bothering with storage. If I want to re-own I can do it on the board and it end up costing less than storing the grain.

Eastern Missouri - We have finished up corn harvest and are getting ready to start cut-ting beans. We had rain overnight so it is looking like we will be rained out for at least a day or two. The corn didn’t look bad but it suffered from the effects of way too much rain. The corn yields across the board basically will be down at least 50bpa from our normal levels. We have a wide variety of soil types and some did much better then others with all the rain we had this year. On our better fields that will normally make in the 200bpa range, this year will only make 125bpa to 150bpa. On some of our ground that is not the best dirt, they will only make 125bpa to 150bpa normally, but this year made just under 100bpa. So it didn’t matter what soil type it was, too much moisture knocked our yields way down. I have some fields with heavy, black soils where we are getting ready to cut beans and I am not for sure what kind of yields we will have. The beans are very short, limited pod development and very thin, not looking normal at all. These beans had wet feet most of the year and it’s surprising we haven’t had more problems then what we have seen.

Central Ontario - This past growing season, our no-till beans yielded 6 bushels less compared to our VT ground. I know the benefits of no-till and how they claim there is no difference in yield. I’m just thinking if I want higher bean yields I need to plant earlier and go for full seasoned beans Group 2.0+. However, I don’t think no-till will allow me to do that as the ground takes longer to warm up and dry out. I was also thinking of strip till beans. There’s not many in Ontario that have experience with it as we plant mostly 7.5 inch or 15 inch row beans now.

Iowa DOT Paying $5.00 Per Bushel For Corn: DES MOINES, IA (CBS2/FOX28) -- The Iowa Department of Transportation will use corn to stop snow from covering some road-ways this winter. Officials are working with farmers to leave about a dozen rows of corn around the edges of some fields to keep the snow from drifting onto the roadways. The DOT will pay the farmers who participate $5 per bushel. Click HERE for more.

Researchers Discover Key Link in Understanding Billion-Dollar Pests in Agricul-ture: Invisible to the naked eye, plant-parasitic nematodes are a huge threat to agricul-ture, causing billions in crop losses every year. Plant scientists at the University of Mis-souri and the University of Bonn in Germany have found the first genetic evidence linking

one method these animals use to attack plants: they proved that these tiny worms use a specialized hormone to help them feed from the plant. This research could allow plant sci-entists to develop crop plants with enhanced resistance to these devastating agricultural pests.

China’s Corn Price Cut Could Help Struggling Processors: China’s plans to cut state corn prices from November will help loss-making companies processing the grain, bring-ing some shuttered capacity back online in the world’s No.2 consumer of the commodity, industry officials said. The amount of corn processing capacity online in the country could grow by 10 percentage points next year in the wake of the move from around 40 percent now, with corn sweetener expected to take more domestic market share from sugar, one analyst tells Reuters.

Why Can’t L.L. Bean Keep the Darn Duck Boots in Stock? L.L. Bean struggled to keep up with demand for its popular duck boots last holiday season and wound up with 100,000 back-ordered pairs and no way to make them fast enough. Since then, the Maine shoe-maker has shored up its manufacturing operations so it wouldn’t happen again. But guess what? It’s happening again. Read more over at Bloomberg.

Watch One Baseball Fan’s Very Bad Day: So, maybe you’ve been having a bad day. We’re pretty sure that one guy — a baseball fan at Tuesday’s Yankees game — can one up you. The man was sitting along the third base line and got three chances to catch a ball. He fumbled all of them.

Tropical Storm Joaquin Upgraded To Hurricane Status...Will It Impact Harvest?Hurricane Joaquin is now officially the third of the Atlantic season and is already rated Cat-egory-3. Hurricane warnings have now been issued for the Bahamas and there’s some talk it could move up the East Coast, becoming one of the biggest threats since hurricane San-dy as wind speeds are already exceeding 125 mph. An Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter reconnaissance aircraft measured a 55 mile wide eye open on its north side prompting the National Hurricane Center to upgrade the storms status. Folks along the East Coast are being told to pay very close attention to the forecast for the next several days as the direction and intensity of this storm is becoming much harder to predict. There’s actually a cold front near the East Coast, the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida still hanging around, a strong bubble of high pressure aloft over the North Atlantic Ocean, and a potentially strong area of low pressure aloft digging into the southeastern U.S.. The American GFS model forecast showed Joaquin making an alarming northwestward turn, slamming it right into Virginia and Maryland this weekend. Meanwhile, the European ECMWF model showed Joaquin staying well away from the U.S. East Coast, and eventually curving out into the North Atlantic well off the coasts of New England and Atlantic Canada. Many are in doubt of the European model, because previous history has shown us that larger systems tend to have a harder time making sharp turns like what’s being forecast. Regardless of the ultimate outcome of Joaquin’s path, portions of the United States will still see multiple

impacts from the evolving large-scale weather pattern. As you can see from the graphic below, a jet stream dip will dig south across the eastern states. This will allow one or more waves of low pressure to develop along the front, helping to pull more rain into these ar-eas out East. As for the Midwest and Upper Midwest, most are forecasting the hurricane to have mild indirect effects on the weather. As it moves northward into the Mid-Atlantic, the west-to-east progression of storm systems across the continent will stop. Parked over the Upper Midwest will be high pressure. That means the fall harvest should be able to continue with little to no difficulty and dry, sunny skies. On thing to note is that the nights could get extremely chilly…possibly dipping into the mid to low-30s. (Source: The Weather Channel)

A Look At China’s National Day HolidayChina’s National Day Holiday starts today. The “Golden Week” runs October 1-7 and is the official national celebration of the 1949 establishment of the People’s Republic of China. It’s the equivalent of the United States’ 4th of July, only China takes the whole week off! Before the establishment of the PRC, the country was ruled by royal families, known as Dynasties, going back over six millennium. The Republic of China overthrew the last Dy-nasty in 1911 and controlled the country until 1949, when the Communist Party overthrew the country’s national party. Mao Zedong, aka Chairman Mao and considered the founding father of the PRC, started the National Day tradition when he raised the first Communist flag in Tiananmen Square on October 1, 1949. Every October 1st since, the ritual has been repeated. At exactly sunrise, uniformed military troops march out on the square to start the ceremony, which surprisingly lasts less than 5 minutes. The “real” entertainment is found in elaborate parades and fireworks shows. The government sponsors a main show in Tiananmen Square, but hundreds of patriots across the capital of Beijing and other main cities put on their own shows that also include fireworks and parades, as well as dancing and singing routines, art exhibitions and calligraphy displays. The holiday week brings an

increase in travel, both within the country and abroad. Around a half a billion people are expected to travel between Chinese cities, while some 120 million are forecast to travel overseas. South Korea, Thailand and Japan are expected to be this year’s top destina-tions. Chinese retailers, restaurants and the catering industry are also traditionally big benefactors of the holiday. Last year, consumers in total spent nearly $160 billion over the course of the week. Spending is seen getting an even bigger boost this year as China’s Mid-Autumn Festival fell very late in the month. The fall festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the lunar calendar year, which put it on September 27 this year. Some Chinese have combined their Mid-Autumn and National Day vacation days, giving them up to ten days in a row off work. Government agencies are only closed from October 1 through 7, but that does mean that global investors get a week long reprieve from any new Chinese economic data!

Forbes 400 Richest AmericansForbes recently released its list of the 400 Richest Americans. This is actually the 34th year of Forbes compiling the list. I always like to look at it and pull out a few highlights:

• Bill Gates is the richest American for the 22nd year in a row, with a net worth of $76 billion. Interestingly, his stake in Microsoft, which he cofounded 40 years ago, now ac-counts for just under 13% of his fortune.

• Amazon’s owner Jeff Bezos made the biggest jump this year by adding an estimated $16.5 billion to his net-worth. He now stands as the 4th richest American.

• Self-made billionaires make up 273 of the 400 members on the list.• Koch brothers, Charles and David, occupy both the #5 and #6 slot having an esti-

mated net-worth of $41 billion each.• Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, at just 31 years old is estimated to be worth

just over $40 billion.• Uber founder, Travis Kalanick doubled his net-worth from $3 billion last year to $6

billion this year.• Nike owner, Phil Knight is worth almost $26 billion. Not bad for the son of a news-

paper publisher and kid who ran track at the University of Oregon.• Youngest billionaire is Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel worth an estimated $2.1 billion and

climbing quickly. There are actual 17 members of the list who are under that age of 40.• Airbnb’s three cofounders, Nathan Blecharczyk, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia are

new to this years list.• Donald Trump might not like it, but Forbes estimates his net-worth at a record high

of $4.5 billion, well below Trump’s self proclaimed $10 billion net-worth.• Walmart’s heirs Christy, Alice and Jim Walton have a combined net-worth of

nearly $100 billion and all three children are ranked in the top 15.• Oprah Winfrey is estimtied to be worth $3 billion ranking #211 on the list.• Top three industries were Technology, Food and Beverage.• Price of entry for this years Top-400 is $1.7 billion. Last year it took $1.55 billion to

make the cut.