North Gower Grains

Friday was a mixed day for our markets.  Spot corn closed down 1/2, spot soybeans closed up 3 3/4, harvest winter wheat closed down 3 1/2 and harvest spring wheat closed up 3 1/4.  In the overnight trade all of our markets are back on the positive side.  Oil closed down $1.45 on Friday at $94.40 per barrel.  It is stronger this morning with it now trading at $95.11 per barrel.  Our dollar traded between a low of $0.729 US and a high of $0.732 US on Friday with it closing out at $0.731 US.  It has strengthened this morning with it currently valued at $0.735 US.  If our dollar stays stronger this week it will be hard to keep basis levels at current levels.

Soybeans closed positive on Friday as they continue to trade within about a 20-cent range over the last five weeks.  The marketplace seems to be waiting to see how the soybean crop gets planted this spring and just as important how many acres will the US farmer plant this spring.  Of course, many market watchers are waiting to see if the meeting in May goes ahead between Presidents Trump and Xi.  Remember there has been much talk that maybe China would purchase more soybeans at this meeting which would of course help to drive prices higher.  This market is just waiting to take a direction, either up or down.

It is nice to see our markets positive this morning as nothing happened to jolt the markets over the weekend concerning the war against Iran.  It looks like no peace talks are occurring but even with the lack of peace talks and nothing flowing through the Strait of Hormuz crude oil prices are not spiking.  We can at least take this as a positive.

Last week was a mostly positive week for our markets.  Corn closed up $3 per tonne across the board.  Spot soybeans were up $2 per tonne with harvest soybeans down $4 per tonne mostly due to a basis decrease.  Winter wheat was up $7 per tonne across the board.  Spring wheat was up $8 per tonne on the spot market and $9 per tonne for this year’s harvest.

Later today the USDA will be releasing their weekly Crop Progress Report.  It is widely expected that the good to excellent ratings for their Winter Wheat crop will continue to falter.  Planting progress is also expected to slow for corn and soybeans due to some recent rains.