The Bank of Canada increased the target interest rate today by 0.25%, to 1.5%. This is now the fourth rate hike, amounting to 1%, since the Bank hiked rates for the first time since 2007 a year ago. Over the last year, the Bank of Canada has matched the aggressiveness of the U.S. Federal Reserve,... Read More
Category: Markets
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has decided to no longer offer reporters a "lockup" period to digest its crop and livestock reports before they're released to the public, as of August 1, 2018. The change in procedure is meant to address concerns about news agency clients getting a head start on trading based on... Read More
Canada's retaliatory tariffs against the United States — worth $16.6 billion — will clearly come at a cost, not only to the American economy, but also the Canadian economy. Despite the likely economic fallout from this trade spat, both sides in this dispute are talking about being disciplined and patient and trying to take a... Read More
At one point in the fall of 2017 soybeans looked like the crop to grow in 2018, as it was going to be the first year ever that soybean acres would be higher than corn and demand was strong. Since the U.S. put its trade agenda with China into action, soybean future prices have really... Read More
When the live cattle futures are limit up, it's a good day for cattle feeders. In these turbulent trade war times, any of the commodities will take a positive day. Cattle futures have been somewhat separated from the downward swing of soybeans, lean hogs, and wheat, but sometimes commodities are guilty by association. The table... Read More
Grain prices were able to find some buyers on Friday, June 29th, to end the trading month and wrap the quarter. Except for canola and soybeans, the grain markets ended up in the green, led by the wheat complex. While today's StatsCan and USDA reports were certainly important, they weren’t the only things moving grain... Read More
After delivering some big surprises in its seeding intentions report back in April, Statistics Canada moved more in line with market expectations in its seeded acreage report published on Friday morning, ahead of the USDA's latest acreage estimates. The report was based on a survey of approximately 24,500 farms between May 11 and June 12,... Read More
As the U.S. attempts to fix its trade grievances with China, farmers watching a falling commodity market are having their patience tested. U.S President Donald Trump's biggest grievance is the trade imbalance that the U.S. has with China. As you can see below, in 2017 the U.S. exported US$129.9 billion in goods to China while... Read More
It was a hairy day in the markets on Tuesday, with the trade battle between China and the United States playing a major factor. On Monday night, President Donald Trump informed the U.S. Trade Representative to look at tariffs on an additional $200 billion in imports from China. This is double his original threat of... Read More
Through the spring of 2018, we have talked about several common themes for the cattle markets that impact the fundamentals of this market. Even though Live Cattle futures finished up over $2 on Friday, the trade has been quite choppy, which gives traders little confidence that we are headed higher from here. Here is a... Read More