Wednesday was a mostly negative day for our markets. Harvest corn closed even, harvest soybeans closed down 5 1/2, harvest winter wheat closed down 2 and harvest spring wheat closed down 1. In the overnight trade all of our markets have made it onto the positive side. Oil closed down $0.82 yesterday at $64.35 per barrel. It is stronger in trading this morning with it now valued at $64.76 per barrel. Our dollar started out yesterday morning at $0.727 US and then trended higher going up to $0.729 US in the overnight trading. It has eased back a bit this morning with it now valued at $0.728 US.
New crop corn prices traded below the $4.00 per bushel mark on the CBOT for much of yesterday. It rallied to close above that mark before the end of the day and has stayed above it again this morning. We should note that the USDA is projecting a yield of 181 bushels per acre this year with last months WASDE report. It is widely expected that they will increase this projection next week with the August WASDE report. Most private forecasters are looking for a yield of about 185 bushels per acre this year based on the continued strong crop ratings and the favourable weather forecasts. Last year the US corn belt turned dry in August and September and it pulled back the yield somewhat. Maybe traders are thinking this still could occur this year and as such are supporting the corn price at $4.00 per bushel on the CBOT.
Weekly ethanol production in the US declined 1.5% week over week to come in at 1.081 million barrels per day. Blended demand was up 0.3% over the week with exports reported down a bit. Net result was reduced ethanol stocks by 3.9% down to 23.756 million barrels. This is a 3-week low for their inventory levels. There has been some recent talk that the ethanol industry may struggle to grind the 5.5 billion bushels of corn this marketing year that the USDA has projected. Corn usage has fallen below last year in three of the past 5 months. Remember that sorghum is also utilised to produce ethanol and has replaced some corn over this marketing year. Any decrease in the corn grind would result in higher carryout corn inventories this year which is a negative for prices going into a projected very large corn yield this fall.
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
