Business

As Heraclitus once said, “The only constant in life is change.” We see this every day in a changing marketplace, weather forecast, geopolitical environment, crop conditions, supply and demand. Aside from that, there have been a few big changes in my life lately as well.

There’s a lot of uncertainty in the markets to start the week after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday, and the additional failure of Signature Bank on Sunday. The fallout from this hit the grain and oilseed markets on Sunday night with a selloff in equity and bond markets and crude oil leading the commodity sector lower.

The grain markets have seen some big losses over the last couple of weeks but did start to recover a bit late last week. The March WASDE report comes out today, March 8th and the thing to watch out for will be what the USDA figures for South American corn and soybean production and how that will impact the world balance sheets.

Grain markets have continued to fall after the USDA’s Agricultural Outlook Forum last week. Other headlines of note include weather in the United States and South America, the Black Sea Export Agreement, the Cattle On Feed report, and the current economy.

The Wishing Windmill originally opened for business in April of 2022 as an online boutique. The owner, Breanna Echols who our readers may recognize as one of Kiowa County Independent’s outstanding lifestyles authors, has recently made a leap of faith and ventured from a webspace to a physical space located at the Wildcat Corner 120 US Highway 40 Kit Carson, Colorado.

Though there isn’t much fresh market news to trade on, there is growing concern about a spying threat after the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed that more unidentified objects have been shot down over Alaska and Canada.

Markets are a bit nervous to start the week after the United States shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon over the weekend. China said the balloon was for scientific purposes and had blown off course.

There isn’t much to talk about in terms of fresh news for the market to trade. Some of the main focuses right now are on the dry weather in Argentina (but they are getting helpful rains), the great precipitation in Brazil that will only add to their production, and poor export demand.

Rain makes grain, and that’s the main story in the markets this week. Much-needed moisture has made its way across the Plains in the form of snow coverage which was better than expected and setting the wheat market back a bit.

Crow’s Stop and Shop grocery store first opened in 1937, it has since been handed down three generations to the current owners, Keith and Jennifer Crow who have owned and operated the store for 12 years.

After the big January World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE), stocks and acreage reports from the USDA came out last week, I decided to do things a little bit differently for this week’s article. Rather than give you a short-term market synopsis, I’d like to give you a market outlook on some things that we may expect to see throughout 2023 in an effort to help you with this year’s marketing plan.

In an interview with Karl and Sarah Eikenberg the Kiowa County Independent learned that the fate of Haswell Propane, a generational business and the only brick and mortar business left in the town would be in their hands as they have purchased Haswell Propane from Paul and Glenda Stoker.

The markets were quiet throughout the last half of December as traders were in holiday mode and trade was thin. The end of December marked month, quarter and year end which brought some volatility to the markets as usual.

Markets have been quiet with low volume and liquidity going into the long holiday weekend with very little fresh news to add movement to the markets. Grain markets will close at their regular time on Friday, December 30th for New Year’s and re-open at 7:30 a.m. MT on Tuesday, January 3, 2023.

Spirit Dance, a dance studio located in Lamar, has been around for 10 years as they are currently celebrating their 10th anniversary, and currently growing at a tremendous rate thanks to the addition of competitive dance opportunities for the dozens of dancers who patronize the business.

I don’t have too much to share this week as news is quiet and the markets are quickly getting into holiday mode with very slow trade, low volumes and small trade ranges.