Wednesday was a mostly positive day for our markets. Harvest corn closed up 1, harvest soybeans closed up 11 1/4, spot winter wheat closed up 1 1/4 and spot spring wheat closed down 5 3/4. In the overnight trade corn is negative, soybeans and winter wheat are just positive and spring wheat is mixed. Oil closed down $0.59 yesterday at $61.78 per barrel. It is weaker again in the overnight trading with it now valued at $61.50 per barrel. Our dollar has traded between a low of $0.716 US and a high of $0.718 US over the last 24 hours. This morning it is right in the middle of the range with it currently valued at $0.719 US.
The soybean market rallied yesterday as President Trump put out an announcement that he would be speaking to President Xi from China specifically about their lack of US soybean purchases. They are supposed to meet at the end of October when they are both at a meeting in South Korea. We should note though that just last week a high ranking Government representative from China said that if the US wants them to purchase soybeans the US need to drop some tariffs. Yesterday’s optimism has subsided this morning as the soybean market is trading right around even.
Weekly ethanol production in the US declined 2.8% last week to come in at 0.995 million barrels per day. This is the third week in the row of declining ethanol production and it also represents a 5 month low in US production. Blender demand was up 0.5% for the week with exports slightly lower hen the previous week. The net result was a 3% decrease in ethanol stocks down to 22.764 million barrels. Ethanol production does usually decrease at this time of the year but the current drop is larger than was anticipated in the marketplace.
Winter wheat prices are near 5 year lows on the CBOT as the supply side dominates this market. US stock levels released last week were at a 5 year high and with strong production this year wheat prices are being pressured. Remember the world market is well supplied with wheat as growing conditions in most of the wheat growing regions of the world have been favourable. Unless demand suddenly increases substantially this market will remain pressured until the supply side encounters some major production issues.
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
