The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

U.S. Wheat exports have expanded from the pace of recent months, but not enough to cause the stress from demand that could change the current trend. The movement in Chicago futures in the last week has been in narrow daily ranges, contained above...

Chicago wheat futures prices have declined one dollar per bushel since January 22, from eight dollars down to seven. During the same period, Portland-delivered white wheat, our neighborhood specialty, has declined from about $8.62 to $8.45 - only 17... Full story

When I have a wheat position on, that is when I am either long (bought) or short (sold). Even after 30 years of analysis and trading of the wheat market, I still have a tendency to notice anything that affirms my position first. It just happens. I...

Rules for trading wheat, or anything else that has a changing price: (1) Know the trend before any de- cision is taken. (2) Do not trade or hold positions against the trend. (3) No trend, no trade. Sometimes the tough part is just identifying the...

The wheat market is not hungry. The mind of the great lumbering beast is not focused clearly, as spring is yet a time away and there is sufficient wheat to last for the next 90 days. Most of the major importers of the world were aggressively buying... Full story

For wheat markets, with January in the books, we are looking at only a few weeks until the US winter wheat price begins the "silly season" of spring weather vola­tility. This year promises some extra spice as the relatively small planted acreage comb...

The great sages tell us that all things seek balance. "Seeking balance" implies at least some swinging back and forth across some "per­fect" point, tracing a sinuous line as momentum rises and falls. With a little contempla­tion, the natural m...

A ll it takes to change the world from night to day is a USDA report. Last Friday's multiple statisti- cal summaries included quarterly wheat inventories, monthly supply and demand estimates and a US winter wheat acreage planted total. Every January... Full story

Last July, the bell- wether Chicago wheat contract was trading above $9.40 per bushel. Harvest was nearly completed in the mid-west and southeast. It was a small- er harvest than hoped, which pushed the price of wheat to a four-year high. Pacific... Full story

Tuesday morning's USDA monthly reports on supply and demand balance sheets had a sur­prise for the wheat trade: world wheat stocks were increased by 3.4 million metric tons over last month's reported total. The trade had expected some increase, but...

People are struggling with decision making in all of the markets as we close in on the end of the year and the end of the Mayan calendar. Outside of those habitual seekers of reasons to "party as if there were no tomorrow," there is little value in a...

We may finally be approaching a market consensus that allows a breakout of the more-than-4-monthold trading range for wheat prices. Even though there is a reasonable technical chart-based rational for lower prices, the variety of fundamental factors...

The price of Chicago soft red winter wheat on Tuesday, Nov. 20 was 70 cents below the highest price traded on November (a week ago Friday). The slightly down- ward sloping trading range is unbroken, but is being threat- ened. The current price is a b...

On Friday Nov. 9, the Chicago wheat March contract briefly touched $9.29 per bushel. By 11 a.m. the next Tuesday, the same contract was trading actively at $8.59, 70 cents per bushel lower. This little bit of drama came in the face of the low- est ov... Full story

The path of least resistance for wheat is positive this week. The election dominated most of the trade's mental effort until Wednesday at least, although there really is no mandate from either party that could drive wheat or other prices rapidly in a... Full story

The biggest news this week for the wheat market was not about the wheat market. Hurricane Sandy shut down New York markets for a couple of days, squeezing the damper down on every other market. Money decision-makers don't like to take significant...

On Tuesday morning, the wheat market was camped out squarely on the middle of the range line going all the way back to the third week of July. Chicago leading futures contracts were at about $8.70 per bushel, while Portland white wheat showed $8.78...

We live in an age of "low drama." Not the high drama of large movements or of a renaissance, but more of small, inward- pointing, divisive motivations, sometimes vicious and often without discernible cause. The world seems dif- ficult and...

The fundamental statistics around wheat produc- tion and consumption in the U.S. have a bottom line: USDA projects 698 million bushels as an "ending stock" level of wheat for this year. The con- sumption of wheat as a feed source was larger than...

When the wheat market jumps 44 cents in one session, as Chicago wheat did last Friday, Sept. 28, and then turns back down 33 cents per bushel over the next couple of days, most wheat producers or owners just shake their heads and sigh. What is the ap...

Wheat prices along with many other markets this week are waiting for a push from any domi- nant factor that will allow a direction. Chicago wheat managed to gain about 15 cents per bushel since last week at this time, but in this environment that is...

The trend in wheat has not been positive for nine weeks, although depending on what week you chose, it was either at the high end or the low end of an 88-cent range that was defined right at the beginning of the period since the last two weeks of... Full story

This just in from the Department of Redundancy Department: The wheat market is in a sideways pattern, with a range of just under 90 cents per bushel in Chicago soft red winter wheat, slightly more for Kansas City hard red winter, $1.23 from high to...

There are corn shipments from Brazil unloading on the East coast for feeders in the mid-coastal region. The price of corn has arrived at a tipping point that is the market must seek a price for United States corn that does not destroy demand any furt...

The wheat market is hunting for a mandate. The highest price of the summer to date is now well more than a month back, on July 23 for Chicago December futures at $9.47 per bushel, and July 20 for white wheat delivered in Portland at $9.05. This...