Dec. 23 –– Outside markets were stable to up again today on very limited trading, due to most traders sneaking away for the holidays.
Gold and energy stocks closed higher on the day, while the U.S. dollar index traded lower, providing support to grain futures which all ended higher on the day.
Gold closed up $7.30 at $1.093.30 today.
The U.S. dollar index ended down a third of a cent today, while the Canadian dollar closed up 0.7 cents at US95.44 cents today.
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The Dow Jones closed up six points at 10,404 today.
In the energy sector, crude oil closed up $2.27 a barrel, at US$76.67.
Corn closed up five to 6.2 cents a bushel today while beans closed up 10.2-12.4 cents a bushel.
Wheat markets closed up 2.6-6.2 cents a bushel today; Minneapolis March futures closed up three cents a bushel.
Canola closed down $1.50-$8.50 per tonne today.
Western barley is down $1 today, closing at $156 per tonne.
Canola futures dropped mainly because of the rising Canadian dollar. Canola crush margins fell by about $20 per tonne this past week, which sent crushers to the sidelines for the time being, especially with the holidays looming.
Opportunities
The calendar year is coming to a close and with it, many frustrations from this past year can be forgotten and planning for 2010 can begin.
Marketing opportunities for new crop are out there, so it’s time to start putting pencil to paper and calculating costs for putting the crop in for next year. Then you can start to make some decisions about pricing some of your 2010 production at profitable levels.
I’ve had a number of inquiries about fertilizer prices and what I think will happen — and is pre-purchasing before the end of the year a good thing?
I’ve gone to some colleagues of mine who are more in the know as far as fertilizer pricing goes, and they concur that nitrogen prices have been slowly rising. With the limited amount of fall fertilizing that was done across North America we could see a possible supply crunch.
If you have on-farm storage and cash to spend before year-end it may be a good move to secure some of your nitrogen inventory for spring. Expectations are that we could easily see a $20- to $40-per tonne increase in the price of nitrogen from now until spring, so if this is enough of a savings for you to lay out the cash now, it may be worthwhile.
Phosphorus, potash and sulfur values have remained steady the past couple of months, but there again we may see an increase in price come spring due to demand and possible supply issues, because of the limited fall work that was done this year.
Shop around, as I am sure ag retailers would be happy to take your cash money at this time of the year, and who knows? Maybe there is a Santa Claus and he will make you a heck of a good deal you can’t refuse.
That’s all for today. — Brian
— Brian Wittal has spent over 27 years in the grain industry, including as an elevator manager and producer services representative for Alberta Wheat Pool, a regional sales manager for AgPro Grain and farm business representative for the Canadian Wheat Board, where he helped design some of the new pricing programs. He also operates his own company providing marketing and risk management advice for Prairie grain producers. Brian’s daily commentaries focus on how domestic and world market conditions affect you directly as grain producers.
Brian welcomes feedback and information on market conditions in your area, such as current offering prices, basis levels, trucking premiums and special crops contracts. Contact Brian today.
