AgriStability Plus In The Works

The Manitoba Pork Council is seeking producer feedback on a proposed companion top-up program to AgriStability. AgriStability Plus is based on a full cost-of-production model of the farm instead of being margin based. As a companion to AgriStability, it would be an insurance-based program. Producers would be responsible for the full cost of premiums but

Water-Gulping Companies Don’t Disclose Risk

Most publicly traded companies that depend on water do not adequately disclose their financial risks to droughts and future regulations, even as water scarcity problems mount, according to a report released Feb. 11. The report produced by Ceres, a coalition of investors and environmentalists and Swiss Bank UBS, ranked 100 of the biggest publicly traded


Low Interest Rates Fuel Speculation

“With grains you have quite clearly a structural bull market for many years to come. If you could store grains for 10 years, then you would buy them and put them away.” – jonathan compton, bedlam asset management Ultra-low interest rates are bringing a wave of speculation to commodities, inflating a bubble that will inevitably

Canola Market Fails To Break Through Resistance

DAVID DROZD The rally that began in the canola market with the delayed harvest is over. The chart pat-t erns were textbook perfect in predicting the inevitable, which was for prices to peak in early January and turn lower. It all started with prices breaking down below the line of support (A) in December 2009.


2010 — The Year Of The Commodity Fund

2 010 may turn out to be the year of the commodity fund. Burnt by the financial crisis of the last two years, money managers are now raising sharply the amount of money allocated to raw materials such as oil, gold, copper, sugar and coffee. The value of commodity funds looks set to grow by

CME Warns Traders To Trade For Real

The CME Group, parent of the Chicago Board of Trade, warned on Jan. 12 it would punish traders who try to manipulate opening prices in Chicago by entering and then cancelling orders early on its Globex electronic trading platform. “Market participants are reminded that all orders entered on Globex during the pre-opening are expected to


Hog Losses Cut Wide Swath

I was one of many who believed Saskatchewan, with its landlocked feed grain supply, was a logical place for the hog industry to prosper. Alarge number and individuals and businesses have lost money due to the demise of the Saskatchewan pork industry. Big Sky Farms, which is currently under creditor protection, is just the latest

Speculators Not Blamed In Cotton Futures Spike

“There is no smoking gun. If there was, obviously somebody would have been prosecuted.” – SHARON JOHNSON, FIRST CAPITOL GROUP Market manipulation did not cause cotton futures prices to artificially spike in 2008, the U. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Jan. 5, after a lengthy investigation spanning nearly 20 months. Evidence found a host


Canadian Dollar Fails To Reach Par

The Canadian dollar was supposed to go par. At least this was the hype when the market peaked at .9798 on Oct. 15, 2009. When a commodity makes the headlines of major newspapers and magazines, it is often a telltale sign that it is near the end of the rally. When most consumers know that

Grains Boom With Hot Money

Low U. S. interest rates and the weak dollar are drawing more hot money into grain markets despite the weight of mammoth crops, setting up a potential repeat of last year’s boom and bust in that market. As index funds and other big investors pour cash into futures at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT),