The Good: The spring wheat markets managed to stop the bleeding and closed up by 1.8 cents per bushel to settle at US$6.32 per bushel. The good news is that spring wheat finished the day higher despite losses in Chicago futures of 1 to 2 cents per bushel. Kansas City futures were also up by one to two cents per bushel which did help support spring wheat futures. The spread between Minneapolis and Kansas City September contracts remains very wide at US$1.07 per bushel. This is good news as that the wide spread reflects the stronger demand profile for spring wheat.
The Bad: One of the recent bright ideas from the Trump administration is to add a 50 per cent tariff on all imported copper. The timeline for the tariffs is not certain, but the copper futures (NYMEX) responded immediately. The nearby contract immediately jumped by 67 cents per pound on Monday, but fell back to the US$5.54 cents per pound level on today’s close. It seems that the current U.S. administration is hell bent on increasing inflation in the U.S. The two largest uses of copper are for house wiring and industrial (think cars and electric motors). These future prices are at the highest levels in history. That is bad news for the U.S. economy in the coming months.
The Ugly: Canola futures were ugly today with the nearby contract down by C$23.10 to settle the day at US$681 per tonne. This is the lowest close of the November contract in over a month. The losses in canola were driven by general pressure across the vegetable oil complex. Soybean futures were down by 11 cents per bushel in today’s trading action. Soybean oil futures were off by 1.4 per cent while Matif rapeseed futures were down by 1.2 to 1.6 per cent. The ugly news is that the November contract is poised to test the C$670 per tonne level.
To access the latest futures prices, go to https://www.producer.com/markets-futures-prices/
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