Headlines:

  • S. Trade Envoy Lighthizer Says NAFTA Has ‘Failed’ Americans
    U.S. President Donald Trump’s top trade official laid down a hard-negotiating line for revamping the North American Free Trade Agreement on Wednesday, saying that major changes were needed to slash U.S. trade deficits and boost U.S. content in autos. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said NAFTA had “failed many, many Americans” and Trump was not interested in merely tweaking the 23-year-old pact, and would seek major changes that would increase North American and U.S. content for autos and strong labor standards. “We need to ensure that the huge trade deficits do not continue and we have balance and reciprocity. This should be periodically reviewed,” Lighthizer said in opening remarks at NAFTA negotiations in Washington. “The rules of origin, particularly on autos and auto parts, must require higher NAFTA content and substantial U.S. content.”.
  • Another GDT fall for butter, as SMP values level
    The latest Global Dairy Trade Auction saw a further small decrease in values, following the larger fall two weeks ago. The average dairy product price is 0.4% down to $3,339/tonne after this week’s auction, following the 1.6% decrease at the August 1 event. Butter saw a 1.3% fall to $5,735/tonne, but remains historically high after the year-long price rally that started last August. Skimmed Milk Powder, accounting for just under 25% of the volume sold, was 0.3% higher at $1,968/tonne. This is a slight upturn after a two-year trend downwards from the over $4,200/tonne in May 2014, as the EU intervention stocks bought to support the oversupplied European milk sector overhang the market. Whole Milk Powder, which represents half the volume sold, was down 0.6% to an average price of $3,143/tonne at the latest auction, with Anhydrous Milk Fats 1.2% lower at $6,199/tonne. Cheddar cheese saw a 1.4% rise to $4,005/tonne.

Summary:

Corn, Soybean, and Spring Wheat farmers in the northern Plains finally seeing some rainfall. In some areas, they are receiving as much 8 inches of rain. Those levels are about 6 times that of normal level for this time of the year. According to the National Weather Service he rain will continue for much of the northern Plains for at least the next seven to ten days. The markets closed mixed with the Soybean market reversing and closing marginally higher with Corn and Wheat finishing lower Wheat was down double digits following yesterday’s losses. The selling may be running out of steam short-term with the markets reaching some intermediate support levels. Much of what we are seeing right now are the markets digesting the results from the USDA report last week. Continued downward pressure is expected for much of the summer but there is still room for corrective bounces in the interim.