Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Food Crop Prices Accelerate Higher

Each day, I hope that farm crops will get planted and prices will reverse. However, instead of reversing, close attention to the last few candles on this chart show an acceleration higher instead!


Bond Market Flashes SIgns of Trouble Ahead

Interest rates are collapsing in the bond market, which is a sign that investors are very worried.

Look out belooooow!
“Recent data points suggest US earnings and economic risk is greater than most investors may think,” says Chief Equity Strategist Michael Wilson of Morgan Stanley.

Food Commodity Prices Continue to Climb

I wonder when we'll begin to see food prices rise this sharply in t\he grocery stores. Corn is up another 8+ cents (32+ ticks) today. Other food commodities are up also.


Monday, May 27, 2019

Crop Catastrophe Coming?

Another scary headline. Wake up, America!

"The food that each one of us eats every day is produced by our farmers, and right now our farmers are truly facing a nightmare scenario." -- Michael Snyder

Sunday, May 26, 2019

Are We Facing a Food Crop Crisis Soon?

This is the latest headline that I saw today that portends a possible food crisis by late this summer.

I'm not surprised because the corn commodity price accelerated higher last Friday. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come. I had hoped and expected that prices might reverse and go lower, but the price accelerated higher instead. Note the last few candlesticks on the right that were even longer and closed even higher on Friday this last week.And it's not just corn, either. Other food commodities are skyrocketing as well!
The main reason for this is that North America has been very wet this spring. Much of America's midwest farm land is flooded.
Why isn't this in the news headlines?

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Food Inflation Run Amok!

Agricultural commodity prices continue to rise sharply. This is the price of corn over the past several days. Other agricultural commodities are rising as well. I wonder when food prices in the stores will begin to reflect this sharp rise. Flooded farms are the cause! Much of the United States has had a very wet spring this year, and many farms are flooded. Planting is only at 30%. It is typically more than double that amount by this time in May.
This first chart is the 4 hour chart:

This second chart is the daily one. It shows the magnitude of the price increase over just a limited number of days!

Monday, May 20, 2019

Will Food Inflation Leap This Year?

From Successful Farming website:
"Mired by a rainy and chilly spring, U.S. farmers may soon give up on planting corn in rain-soaked parts of the Farm Belt because it is getting too late for money-making yields, said economist Scott Irwin of the University of Illinois. “I truly believe we are in ‘black swan’ territory as far as late corn planting is concerned,” he said over the weekend, using a term popularized during the financial crisis a decade ago." 
The US Department of Agriculture reported last week that only 30% of U.S. corn acres were planted as of May 12; that's the fourth-slowest in records back to 1980 -- way behind the five-year average of 67%. 
But perhaps there's still hope for a good crop this year. Reuters also had this:
"Rain-driven planting delays for U.S. corn have been dragged out long enough to cause a noticeable rally in Chicago-traded futures, but speculators were not yet ready to shed their enormously bearish positions as of early last week."

Food Commodity Prices Skyrocket!

The weather-related events in North America are keeping farmers in the United States from planting their crops. One article I read last week indicated that corn planting by mid-May was only at 30%, whereas it typically is at 66% most years. This has caused the price of corn to leap higher and higher! The chart below shows the price of corn, but is similar for other food and grain commodities also!

The following quote is from Reuters this morning:
   "The talk between traders is that "prevented planted" acres
for corn may be as high as 5 million acres," said Ole Houe,
director of advisory services at brokerage IKON Commodities. 
    "Whereas in the past, we have never seen it above 3.6
million acres and then there is the debate over "yield drag"
from later planted corn."
    Showers over the next 10 days are threatening to further
slow planting from the Dakotas to Illinois, regions that have
endured torrential rain this spring, the Commodity Weather Group
said.

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Stocks Rise to Record Highs Even As Economy Weakens

The bubble grows! Central bankers are nervous and have shown signs that they may engage in quantitative easing again. This is not surprising, given the economic evidence. However, there is also evidence that QE may have run its course, and may not be effective the next time around. Previous central bank presidents indicated that a suppression of 4% or more is needed, but current US Treasury interest rates are only about 2%-2.25%, so another round of QE may be ineffective the next time around.

Monday, April 8, 2019

Crude Oil Goes Ballistic

Tensions between the Saudis and the United States have sent the price of crude oil soaring today.

This situation reminds me of when the Arabs issued an embargo against the US, and gasoline prices in the US soared, and there was a shortage of gasoline in the US for a time. It also lead to a recession in the US. History repeats itself?

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Friday, October 12, 2018

Corn Crop Clobbered by Hurricane Michael

Note that until Hurricane Michael, corn had been trending lower for the last few days, but when the hurricane hit, prices leaped! This is one of the worst hurricanes to hit the United States in decades.

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Dow Crashes 800+ Points!

Ouch!

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Longest Bull Market Ever Recorded


This stock market smells more bubbly every day!

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Stocks Soar on Good Trade News

Stocks soared today on news that Trump and Juncker reached a good trade deal. The S&P is just a few points below the highs reached in February.

Thursday, July 12, 2018

Trade War Threat Sends Commodities Cliff Diving

These charts for corn and crude oil are symbolic of what commodity prices are doing under the threat of a trade war.



Monday, July 2, 2018

Corn Collapses

I was shocked this morning to see that the price of corn had dropped 10 cents. That's a huge drop!


Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Crude Continues to Ramp Up

Gas prices will soon begin to reflect the higher price of crude oil. We have now hit a higher price that the high hit in mid-May.


Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Climbing Crude Oil

This isn't going to be good for the economy. Crude oil is up five of the past six days.


Sunday, June 24, 2018

Crude Oil Climbs Sharply

I was quite shocked at how sharply the price of crude oil climbed Friday. I understand that OPEC was unable to agree on production increases.