This week has been laced with trade threats, drama, and fear for agricultural commodity markets, all based on the possibility of a trade war between the U.S. and China. Most economists agree that though a trade war has yet to start, there is a serious flirtation with one. And no matter what President Trump tells... Read More
Category: Markets
HyLife Foods celebrated the expansion of its hog processing plant in Neepawa, MB, this week — an expansion that has been driven by growing demand for Canadian pork in Japan and China. The La Broquerie-based company has added 100,000 square feet to the facility, including new cutting floor space, a shipping/packaging area, and more cooling... Read More
Grain markets finished the end of March and the calendar quarter on a bit of a high as the USDA provided a slightly bullish catalyst on the last day of trading. This could provide some active, but volatile, trading in the first week of April. Until Thursday, soybean prices and corn prices headed lower as... Read More
Add over a million acres of spring wheat, and subtract more than two million acres of soybeans... There were a few surprises in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Prospective Plantings report published on Thursday. The department pegged soybean acres at 89.0 million acres — more than two million below the average trade estimate of 91.1... Read More
Grain markets this week took a bit of a geopolitical hit with a subdued approach to more talk of trade war. Specifically, this week, U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to place tariffs on about $50 billion worth of Chinese imports. But China isn't ready to be pushed around. On Friday, the country announced a... Read More
Grain markets had another volatile week as we dealt with conflicting bullish and bearish variables including, but not limited to: exports, acreage forecasts, weather forecasts, and currency swings. Sounds like a normal week, right? First, the Canadian dollar lost nearly 2% this week to close under 76.5 cents USD. This is the first time it... Read More
Cattle and lean hogs futures have slid in the past 30 days as livestock producers look to protect themselves from downside risk. Besides oats, which are down 10% in the past month, the protein complex has been the worst performer of all the agricultural commodities in the last month. In the past 30 days: April... Read More
If the very idea of a digital currency makes you blank out, worry not — there are very few out there who would argue that Bitcoin has a large role to play in agriculture. If you've lumped the blockchain concept in with Bitcoin, that's where you need to pause and investigate further. Because, while the... Read More
This past week’s grain markets were highlighted by the USDA’s March installment of the monthly WASDE report. Going into the report, the market was looking for some big changes to South American production possibilities, but it wasn’t necessarily expecting the American balance sheet to provide the surprises. The USDA dropped its estimate of the Argentine... Read More
Statistics Canada has confirmed once again that Canadian cattle producers are not following their American counterparts in expanding the beef herd. The federal agency published its January 1, 2018, inventory report this week, and Anne Wasko, of Gateway Livestock, walks us through the numbers in this Beef Market Update. First of all, for the not-so-analytical... Read More