The Bank of Canada raised the overnight rate target to 1.25 percent this week, with a cautionary note that touched on the uncertainty around the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The announcement caused brief volatility in the Canadian dollar, but will this change, or the one or two other hikes expected by economists affect... Read More
Category: Markets
The Bank of Canada raised target rates this morning by 0.25 percent. The Canadian dollar (CAD) initially responded by falling over a half cent, but closed the day slightly higher. While rate hike announcements tend to inspire a bullish dollar, what is often overlooked is what the market was expecting prior to the announcement. In... Read More
As growers look ahead to seeding, it seems every single cropping option has pricing issues, but there also opportunities to look for. Supply has been a challenge for wheat and corn while soybeans and canola have benefited from strong demand that has assisted in creeping acres higher. READ: 7 Deadly Sins of Grain Marketing Shaun... Read More
Grain markets the first full week of January were highlighted by the first World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report of the calendar year on Friday. The report was generally viewed as bearish, but soybeans were able to catch a bid and rally more than a dime thanks to a smaller American yield estimate.... Read More
The USDA published some larger-than-expected estimates for corn and wheat in its January reports published on Friday, but the futures market — particularly for corn — showed little response. The January 12th data release included the monthly WASDE report, the annual Crop Production summary, the December 31st quarterly stocks report, and the first Winter Wheat... Read More
The USDA will release one of its most anticipated reports on Friday — the January World Agricultural Supply/Demand Estimates or WASDE. Some analysts have referred to it as the Super Bowl of USDA reports. As in sports, the pregame discussions and speculation can be almost as much fun as analyzing the score(s) after the fact.... Read More
India's move to impose prohibitive import tariffs on peas, lentils and chickpeas has left a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the pulse market heading into the 2018 growing season. After back-to-back bumper crops domestically, India implemented a 50 percent tariff on pea imports in November, followed by a 30 percent tariff imposed on lentils and... Read More
Precision agriculture provides clear evidence of the impact of yield variability. But often farmers find themselves mired in a swamp of data as they work to create management zones and prescriptions to maximize yield across a field. University of Guelph's Clarence Swanton certainly sees the opportunity for farmers to intensify management and increase yield but... Read More
Today marks the end of the 2017 calendar trading year. It’s also the end of the fourth quarter of the calendar and the month of December. If we’re looking back at where we started 2017, there isn’t much green on the board. More specifically, since the markets opened 2017 in January, despite the U.S. Dollar... Read More
This week, grain markets were dominated by thinner trading volumes — a bit ironic considering that Jolly St. Nick’s visit is just around the corner. While the volume was thin, the results of trading activity were mixed. Canola price gains were weighed down this week by a stronger Canadian Dollar, only gaining 0.2% while the... Read More