Sept. 28 –– A late and short report today, as I’m traveling the next couple of days and won’t be able to post reports until the evenings.
Financial markets showed some life again today which helped to push grains to a positive opening. Corn and wheat were able to hold onto small gains for the day but beans and canola ended negative at the close.
Corn was up four to five cents a bushel, beans are down six to 13 cents a bushel, wheat was even to up six cents a bushel, canola is down $2-$6.70 per tonne and barley is up $2 per tonne.
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The Canadian dollar finished down slightly, closing at US92 cents.
The Dow Jones finished up 109 points, closing at 9,728.
Crude oil was up 82 cents today, closing at US$66.84 per barrel.
Good weather over the weekend helped push harvest along nicely and this continues to push grains lower, but calls for cooler weather and frost later this week are starting to stir some speculative interest, so we could see some activity build as the week goes on.
Canadian National Railway (CN) and its approximately 1,700 locomotive engineers are currently in contract negotiations and both sides are optimistic that a settlement can be reached that would avoid a service disruption.
Rumours of a possible lockout have been circulating, so the union is doing a mail-in strike vote that would only come into effect if a lockout occurs. We have seen this before, so let’s hope they’re able to work things out and keep the trains rolling for everyone’s benefit.
That’s all for this 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.
