Wednesday was a mostly negative day for our markets. Harvest corn closed down 2, harvest soybeans closed down 3, spot winter wheat closed down 1 and spot spring wheat closed unchanged. In the overnight trade all of our markets are on the positive side. Oil closed up $1.58 yesterday at $64.99 per barrel. It is weaker in the overnight trading with it now valued at $64.70 per barrel. With some choppy trading our dollar has traded between a low of $0.719 US and a high of $0.721 US over the last 24 hours. This morning it is currently valued at $0.720 US.
China has been an aggressive purchaser of soybeans from Argentina this week after the export taxes were removed on agricultural products out of Argentina. Their government announced that the export taxes would be waived until $8 billion worth of products was sold. It has been reported that this dollar figure has already been met and as such it will be interesting to see if the target level is increased or if the export taxes will be put back on. The purchases made by China are helping them to cover positions that normally would be supplied with US soybeans. Remember that there are no sales of US soybeans to Chinese purchasers for the current crop year.
Weekly ethanol production out of the US declined last week by 2.9% down to 1.024 million barrels per day. This was a 4 month low for ethanol production. Blended demand and exports were weaker for the year which resulted in a stocks buildup of 3.8% up to 23.468 million barrels. A concern for the amount of corn used in ethanol production has been raised with the low price of sorghum in the US. For many ethanol plants they can also utilise sorghum and it may take a larger share of production as the marketing year progresses. If this does occur the USDA will need to decrease their numbers for the amount of corn utilised and this of course would be negative for prices going forward.
If you would like to talk about the markets or price some of your crop for the future or in store, please reach out to us via phone or email to info@northgowergrains.com. Prices quoted herein are for product at our elevator.
Delores Seiter | 613-880-7458
Bob Orr | 613-720-1271
Tony Mitchell | 613-227-2525
Office | 613-489-0956
