Monday was a nice positive day for our markets. Spot corn closed up 7, spot soybeans closed up 16 1/4, spot winter wheat closed up 6 and spot spring wheat closed up 1/2. In the overnight trade corn and the wheat sector are negative with soybeans mixed. Oil closed up $1.00 yesterday at $58.32 per barrel. It is stronger in trading again this morning with it now valued at $58.60 per barrel. Our dollar had both a low of $0.724 US and a high of $0.727 US yesterday before noon. It has traded within that range since then with it currently valued this morning at $0.726 US.
Soybeans led our markets higher yesterday with more rumours that China is stepping up purchases. Remember this is just rumours. The March contract has only closed positive 6 days on the CBOT since the middle of November. Yesterday’s close was the strongest of those 6 days. With no real changes to the fundamentals in the market at this time it is most likely that it was just a day to go positive and traders jumped on and prices rallied. We can see today with soybeans trading around even that the marketplace is waiting on news to move it either way.
The corn market traded much like the soybean market yesterday. It wiped out the small losses from last week in the one day of trading but has fallen back on the negative side again today. Nothing new in this market to drive prices either way.
What is the current news on the world front for our agricultural traders?
- Firstly, the Venezuela situation is being watched with no current direct influence on our markets other than questions on how it might affect oil prices going forward.
- The world vegetable oil market is currently well supplied with India increasing soybean oil imports and decreasing palm oil imports. India is the largest vegetable oil importer on the world market.
- Projections for the soybean crop in Brazil keep getting larger with some reports now have it approaching 180 million tonnes.
- Weather in the Southern US is being somewhat stressful for their winter wheat crop but no major concerns at this time.
- Will the war between Russia and Ukraine finally end and how will this affect trade?
- Of course the market is always watching what China is doing.
- Finally what will the USDA report next Monday with their monthly WASDE report? This has the potential to be the biggest news item of them all.
All in all the market always has something to look at but it is hard to find major items at this time to drive prices.
Delores Seiter | 613-880-7458
Bob Orr | 613-720-1271
Tony Mitchell | 613-227-2525
Office | 613-489-0956
