August 12 2009
Financial markets seemed to reawaken Wednesday and found some life that saw some positive gains for the day.
The US dollar fell a quarter cent.
The Canadian dollar gained back just over a full cent to close at .9182 US.
The Dow Jones Sept quote closed up 103 points at 9319.
The USDA report came is pretty much as expected so the grain markets really didn’t react or over react to the report.
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Slight increases in corn and wheat yields and carryout stocks were seen as negative for those crops but were anticipated by the trade so no big surprise.
An increase in bean acres and a slight reduction in yields was again anticipated, and when you add to that the strong export sales demand for old crop beans the report was seen as slightly supportive for beans.
With no new surprises in this report the markets remained relatively quiet today as market activity the last few days had already anticipated these minor adjustments and had responded accordingly.
Looking to the larger world picture the USDA raised world ending stocks for corn and wheat and lowered bean stocks. World production estimates were pretty much unchanged from July estimates which when combined with ending stocks shows more than adequate supplies of corn and wheat world wide and sufficient bean supplies to meet world demand.
SO now US grain markets are going to go back to focusing on harvest weather concerns as their primary driver for futures movement going forward.
In Canada we are waiting for the Stats Canada report due out next week to give us a better idea of what we can expect from this years crop and if there are no surprises or frosts before then I would expect we will see Canadian grain futures continue to hold steady as well until harvest issues tell us otherwise.
Crude oil was up $.71 a barrel today to close at $70.16 a barrel US.
Corn finished up 4 to 8 cents a bushel.
Beans ended mixed, down 5 cents a bushel to up 6 cents a bushel today.
Wheat closed mixed, down 5.6 cents a bushel to up 5.2 cents a bushel on the various US exchanges.
Minneapolis Sept wheat futures closed down 5.6 cents a bushel.
Canola finished down $1.20 a tonne across the board today. With no new support from beans and the Canadian dollar climbing hard and crude up as well, canola had no choice but to fall back after yesterdays gains.
Barley closed up $.80 a tonne today at $140.50 a tonne.
