Brian Wittal

July 23 — Financial markets showed some life today with steady gains in the indexes and the currencies. The Canadian dollar continues to climb, with a gain of 1.09 cents to close at US92.07 cents. The Dow Jones September quote closed down 158 points at 8,991. Crude oil closed up $1.76 at US$67.16 per barrel. […] Read more

July 22 — Financial markets were rather quiet today, with limited trading volumes and little movement either way. The Canadian dollar continues to climb, with a gain of 1.56 cents to close at US91.04 cents. The Dow Jones September quote closed down 53 points at 8,833. Crude oil closed down 21 cents at US$65.40 per […] Read more

July 21 — Financial markets remained steady to up again today, but that wasn’t enough to help grain futures, as they continued to fall due to the ideal growing conditions we’re experiencing across most of North America. The Canadian dollar continues to climb, with a gain of 0.86 cents to close at US90.34 cents. The […] Read more

July 20 — I made it back from our trek on the West Coast trail alive and well, albeit a little stiff, sore and bruised. I got home at 2 p.m. today, so this will be a short recap of what the markets did today and over the past week. Reviewing the markets of the […] Read more

July 9 — Financial markets were mixed to up slightly today as some of the earnings reports coming out from major companies such as Alcoa aren’t quite as bad as some were expecting. The U.S. dollar dropped 0.9 cents today and the Canadian dollar rose three-quarters of a cent, closing at US86.18 cents, which is […] Read more

July 8 — Financial markets were a little better today but still ended the day with small losses for the most part. The U.S. dollar rose half a cent today and the Canadian dollar dropped 0.48 cents, closing at US85.4 cents. The Dow Jones June quote closed down 15 points at 8,116. Crude oil closed […] Read more

July 7 — World and U.S. financial markets were on shaky ground today as traders are becoming a little leery. The second-quarter earnings report for the Standard and Poor’s (S+P) 500 companies that’s to be released Wednesday doesn’t sound like it will have any good news in it. Preliminary indications are to expect an overall […] Read more

July 6 — World and U.S. equity markets struggled overnight and finished mixed to down for the day. U.S. employment numbers showed more jobs lost than expected and this pressured the equity markets and the currencies today. The first part of July is historically when the soybean markets usually take a bit of a drop […] Read more

July 2 — U.S. markets showed some strength yesterday (July 1) so it was expected that Canadian markets would follow suit today. Overnight markets took on a negative tone, however, and that carried over into today’s trade. Financial indicators were down across the board today, which pretty much set the tone for the rest of […] Read more

June 30 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s acreage and inventory report came out this morning and overall the report was viewed as being slightly negative for all grains. Corn and bean acres were up more than the trade was guesstimating and quarterly stocks showed higher numbers for the major grains as well. This all […] Read more