What will drive grain prices higher?

Weather conditions through spring seeding will be a major market-moving factor over the next few weeks, but news on the transportation front may also sway values. Planes — The United States government announced long-anticipated guidance on its subsidy program for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) on April 30. The announcement only covers the next year, but[...]

Grain prices still hang on exports

Canada is a country whose main exports are hockey players and cold fronts,” according to a quote attributed to former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau who jokingly added “our main imports are baseball players and acid rain.” Looking at the current Winnipeg Jets lineup at least, it’s safe to say the trade balance on hockey[...]



Survey says... a lot about markets

In the days when everyone had a landline, smartphones were non-existent and call display was rare, I once had a part-time job conducting market research phone surveys. We’d start with numbers in Atlantic Canada and end the shift calling British Columbia, following the time zones to catch people when they were most likely to be[...]


Wheat prices stuck in sideways pattern

North American wheat markets have been treading water for the past few months, with prices struggling to show much life. Minneapolis spring wheat, the most closely related futures contract to the Prairie cash market, has held in a sideways range just above contract lows for the better part of two months, with no indication that[...]

Canola price sees slight growth

The canola market finally showed signs of strength in the first week of March, moving above some key chart points as values stabilized after trending lower for the previous five months. The May contract climbed above its 20-day moving average, settling above the psychological $600 per tonne mark on March 7. The contract traded consistently[...]


Mixed activity in grain markets

Activity was mixed in the North American grain and oilseed markets during the last full week of January, as traders were busy looking for direction from South America, where Brazil was in its early stages of harvesting its soybean crop and seeding its next corn crop. The looming influx of recently harvested Brazilian soybeans may[...]

Grain trade expects lower canola yields

Harvest operations are in their early stages across Western Canada, leaving the canola market in a somewhat precarious position awaiting news and biding time until there’s a clearer picture on the size of this year’s crop. The November contract held in a rather narrow $30 per tonne range in early August, between $770 and $800,[...]


Grain, oilseed markets trending lower

The major North American grain and oilseed markets continued to trend lower in mid-February, with canola, soybeans, corn and wheat contracts all setting new contract lows as the futures work to uncover demand. Burdensome supply/demand fundamentals, coupled with heavily short speculators and farmer selling on any attempts at moving higher, give little reason to expect[...]