North Gower Grains

Monday, March 9, 2026, 8:05 am

Friday was a positive day for our markets. Spot corn closed up 7, spot soybeans closed up 21 1/2, harvest winter wheat closed up 33 and harvest spring wheat closed up 23 1/2.  In the overnight trade all of our markets remain on the positive side.  Oil closed up $11.94 on Friday at $90.90 per barrel.  It is much stronger in trading again this morning with it now valued at $102.29 per barrel.  Our dollar traded between a low of $0.731 US and a high of $0.737 US on Friday with it closing out at the high end of the range.  It is stronger again this morning with it now currently valued at $0.739 US.

The war rages on in the Middle East with more concerns at least in the short term with crude oil supply.  US and Israel have hit a major refinery in Iran and this has led to thoughts that Iran will bomb other oil facilities in the Middle East.  Other OPEC nations have pledged to increase production in the short term however it seems that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to shipping and oil prices have jumped up considerably.  In the overnight trading they peaked up at $120 per barrel before pulling back some this morning.  Volatility is the name of the game and we are most definitely seeing this in oil prices.

With the uncertainty that the war carrying on we are seeing large inflows of funds into our markets.  As of last Tuesday, Managed Money Funds are now net long both the corn and soybean markets.  On the negative side they actually increased their short position (looking for prices to go down in the SRW market).  Since Tuesday it is widely thought that the Speculative Funds have been investing on the long side (looking for prices to go up) and this has helped to drive our commodity prices higher.

Last week was a positive week for our markets even with a couple of negative days.  Spot corn closed up $4 per tonne with this year’s harvest up $5 per tonne.  Soybeans were up $11 per tonne on the spot market and $6 per tonne for this year’s harvest.  Spring wheat was up $11 per tonne for old crop and $10 per tonne for new crop.  Winter wheat was up $9 per tonne across the board.

We talked above about how the flow of money is helping to support our commodity prices at this time.  We also need to look at the complete energy sector and remember that as crude oil prices increase this supports both the ethanol and biodiesel markets.  With this becoming an ever-increasing major factor in the prices of both corn and soybeans we will happily accept the current increase in prices.

With the volatility seen in the overnight market it was nice to see many target orders were hit this morning.  Soybean and wheat prices were up to 20 cents higher in the overnight trading session with corn peaking at about 10 cents higher.  Target orders do work as they can take advantage of the wild spikes in prices that can occur at times like this.