Friday, September 18, 2026, 7:35 am

Thursday was a negative day for our markets.  Harvest corn closed down 3 3/4, harvest soybeans closed down 3/4, spot winter wheat closed down 3 3/4 and spot spring wheat closed down 3 1/2.    In the overnight trade corn is now positive with soybeans and the wheat sector still on the negative side.  Oil closed down $0.51 yesterday at $101.91 per barrel.  It is weaker in trading again this morning with it now priced at $101.33.  Our dollar had a high yesterday morning before noon of $0.716 US and has trended mostly lower since then.  This morning it is currently valued at $0.715 US. 

On a negative day for our markets the best thing we can say is that they all closed well off their low for the day.  The weaker Canadian Dollar this week also supports local basis levels which would be a second positive for the day.

The corn market did fall below the 20 day moving average yesterday.  The short term trend in this market is not our friend as prices continue to slip farther away from some recent highs.  With harvest moving along in the US this market needs something positive to drive prices.  Of course this could come next week if China was to announce some US corn purchases when the two presidents get together.  Currently China is purchasing some corn from Brazil and it would be great for our markets if these purchases were switched to the US.

With the increased soybean crush this year in the US they of course are producing record amount of soybean meal.  They have been able to handle this increased production with exports up 13% this year.  The demand for the exports is helping soybean meal prices to continue to rise with them currently up for 4 consecutive days and setting a new harvest high for this year.  This of course continues to bring support for soybean prices and yesterday helped them to close well off the lows for the day.

More bombings by Russia are limiting grain exports out of Ukraine.  They have bombed a crucial bridge utilised to get grains to ports on the Danube River.  With Ukraine unable to export out of their Odessa Ports and now further limited from their Danube Ports their export capabilities are severely limited.  With wheat prices still lower this morning we can see that traders are turning a blind eye to this latest development.

Yesterday we wrote about a rumour that President Xi of China had a stroke and that this could result in the cancellation of his visit to the US next week.  This rumour is still out there but of course no confirmation has come from China that President Xi has any health concerns.  We will have to wait and see if anything comes out of this rumour next week.

Friday’s thought: When everything feels too big, go little.  Wrap yourself with grace and space!

Geoffrey Guy | 613-880-2707
Adam Plater | 613-220-8961
Bob Orr | 613-720-1271
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