Commodity Prices Fluctuate Last Week

Canola prices were on the upswing over the past week, while wheat futures are starting to show a downward trend.

 

Adam Pukalo with PI Financial notes that canola was up more than 16 dollars a metric ton last week, while spring wheat futures were down more than seven cents a bushel.  "There was a USDA report and it came out fairly bullish for the soybean side of the market, so that helped both soybean and canola actually reach new multi-year highs. Export demand remains strong, stocks continue to tighten, and there are some weather concerns that are still in the South America crop.  For production, the average US corn yields were actually lowered by 2.6 bushels to 175.8 bushels per acre.  That was actually fairly bullish for corn prices.  Similarly, soybean yields were lowered to 50.7 bushels an acre which is a drop of about 0.8 bushels from the October report."

 

Pukalo is seeing some weakness in the markets overall.  "Overall, the grain markets remain in a positive trend but are pulling back slightly.  On the wheat side of things it actually wasn't a bullish report, it was more neutral on that front.

 

The outlook going forward, Pukalo will be watching the new highs on soybean and canola markets.  He is hoping that wheat will hold around the $5.62 on the March Minneapolis contract.  He will also be watching the Canadian markets and the Canadian dollar which both could be determining factors.