Thursday, February 27, 2025, 7:25 a.m.

Wednesday was another negative day for our markets.  Harvest corn closed down 3, harvest soybeans closed down 5 1/2, harvest winter wheat closed down 8 1/2 and harvest spring wheat closed down 9.  In the overnight trade corn and spring wheat are mixed, soybeans are now positive and winter wheat is still negative.  Oil closed $0.31 yesterday at $68.62 per barrel.  It is stronger in trading this morning with it now valued at $69.47 per barrel.  Our dollar with some choppy trading has stayed between a low of $0.696 US and a high of $0.699 US over the last 24 hours.  This morning it is currently valued at $0.697 US.

As prices pulled back yesterday soybeans have fallen close to both their 50 day and 100 day moving averages.  With the current negative influence on price from South America it will be hard for soybeans to pose much of a rally in the current marketplace.

Tariffs and President Trump remain front and center.  The March 4^th deadline for the 25% tariffs against Canada and Mexico is just next week and he has spoken both about postponing the implementation of new tariffs and also going ahead with them.  He has also spoken about a 25% tariff for products from the European Union.  What he will do and how it will affect our markets is the big unknown at this time.

Weekly ethanol production in the US decreased last week by 0.3% however this was a smaller decrease then the market was expecting.  Production came in at 1.081 million barrels per day.  Blender demand and exports were down a bit for the week and as such stock levels increased by 5% up to 27.571 million barrels which is just short of a record high.  We should note that production is running 4.2% above last year’s rate so far for this marketing year.

I had my days mixed up yesterday saying the USDA Ag Outlook conference started yesterday.  It actually is starting today.  I am reading lots of different numbers on early projections for this year’s planting intentions.  The market will take more direction from the USDA number this week then most of the analysts’ projections.  We will have to wait and see if they give the markets any firm direction or not.

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.