'Interesting' year for markets continues

Depending on the weather, we could see another market rally later this year which makes for an interesting situation from a marketing standpoint.

“I think this year is going to present some interesting challenges,” said Merrill Crowley with Midwest Market Solutions during Tuesday’s 2018 CIFN Ag Outlook Meeting in Fairbury.

Aaron Curtis of MIDCO notes we have gone through several periods of very “boring” trade activity, at least on the futures side. Then, there was finally a weather problem and it was not in the United States.

“I know there’s a lot of sympathy out there for the Argentine farmer,” Curtis said. “I think there’s going to be a lot of volatility to come here as we move into the spring weather season.”

Curtis says it was nice to see the meal market start to rally which led soybeans. Farmers have been rewarding that rally on the soybean side during the past few weeks.

Advance Trading’s Jessica Murphy feels we are setting ourselves up for increased price volatility. She believes it is important for growers to put themselves in a very flexible position from a marketing standpoint.

“We’ve got that big USDA planting intentions report coming out this Thursday, so depending on what those acres show, we could be setting ourselves up to see some higher volatile markets,” Murphy explained.

Crowley, Curtis and Murphy were all panelists at the 2018 CIFN Ag Outlook Meeting at Gig’s Place in downtown Fairbury, co-sponsored by Prairie Central Cooperative and Bank of Pontiac.

Thursday’s USDA report is due out at 11 a.m.