The elevator is back to harvest hours this week, 7 am to 7 pm.  Of course this is weather permitting. 

Friday was a positive day for our markets.  Harvest corn closed up 1 1/4, spot soybeans closed up 7 1/2, spot winter wheat closed up 9 3/4 and spot spring wheat closed up 2 1/2.  In the overnight trade all of our markets remain on the positive side.  Oil closed up $0.41 on Friday at $60.98 per barrel.  It is weaker in trading this morning with it now valued at $60.91 per barrel.  Our dollar traded between a low of $0.713 US and a high of $0.715 US on Friday with it closing out at the low end of the range.  In the overnight trading it has weakened just a bit with it currently valued this morning at $0.712 US.

Our markets closed positive on Friday after starting out the day on the negative side.  They had a strong rally after the ‘Trade Pact’ was made between the US and China and it was looking like Friday was going to be a pullback day.  This did not occur as it was announced on Friday that China purchased another 250,000 tonnes of US soybeans for near term delivery.  This is occurring even though basis levels have fallen in Brazil which has made their soybeans less expensive on the world market.  If China keeps purchasing soybeans from the US even if they are more expensive it will be very supportive for our markets going forward.

It is nice to see this morning that prices have continued to rally.  Not just for soybeans but for corn and wheat also.  There is still some hope that the ‘Trade Pact’ will include other agricultural products but these are only rumours at this time.  It seems that the marketplace is trading like these rumours are going to turn into facts sometime soon.  In reality we can only hope for that at this time.

Soybean prices are also being supported in the US by surging demand for soybean meal.  Soybean meal has traded higher every day since October 13 and is also being supported by trade deals.  In this case not the pact made with China but deals made with Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia and others.  Domestic demand for soybean oil provided support for the soybean market for much of this year and now it has changed to soybean meal.  This is occurring with what is seems like monthly crush records in the US producing record amounts of both soybean meal and soybean oil.

Last week was a nice positive week for our markets.  Spot corn closed up $3 per tonne with next year’s harvest up $2 per tonne.  Soybeans of course were the star with the spot market up $22 per tonne.  Next year’s harvest was up $9 per tonne.  Spring wheat was up $1 per tonne for both this year and next year.  Winter wheat was up $8 per tonne on the spot market and $6 per tonne for next year.

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.