Oil traders fastened their seat belts Tuesday morning as President Biden announced the release of 50 million barrels of crude from the U.S. strategic stockpile. Japan, China, South Korea, India and Great Britain added sales as well in an unsuccessful attempt to hold fuel prices down. Friday morning’s announcement by the World Health Organization of a new, highly mutative COVID variant tanked oil prices much more dramatically...

December wheat futures shot up to a new contract high on Thursday at $8.43 per bushel. Among the reasons were Australian and Canadian weather issues, including a washout of rail service to Vancouver and general inflationary concerns. In addition, record-low world exporter stockpiles led to higher prices in Russia, and Egypt faced shortages just as the International Grains Council cut their forecast for global wheat production...

Gold bugs, silver bulls and concerned investors rushed back to the futures markets all week as the U.S. Labor Department announced a 6.2-percent rise in the widely followed Consumer Price Index. Supply chain problems were identified as a partial explanation of the rise in everything from autos, gasoline, ethanol and furniture, to clothing, wages and medical care...

Soybeans and bean products dropped this week as a stronger dollar made our crops more expensive for our customers to import. Another factor adding pressure to beans is the rising price of fertilizer, causing more farmers to plant beans and fewer to plant corn. ...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the American Farm Bureau released data this week indicating Thanksgiving foods, including turkeys, will reach record highs due to inflation. The Farm Bureau estimated the average cost of the dinner to be about $49. ...

Wheat prices were screaming higher all week, with spring wheat—used in pizza and bagels—jumping over $10 per bushel. Kansas hard red winter wheat—used for bread—rose sharply as well. Extreme heat in the Central Plains provided fuel, although a weak dollar and plenty of bullish news added to the upward sentiment. ...

The highest inflation rate in over 10 years was announced Wednesday by the U.S. Labor Department. Natural gas, unleaded gasoline, heating oil, rising wages, new cars, housing costs and groceries were among the factors that drove the September Consumer Price Index up 5.4 percent compared to last year’s inflation estimate...

Supply chain issues, increasing consumer demand, surging energy and transportation costs and labor shortages are causing higher consumer prices. Price tags are especially noticeable at grocery stores and restaurants, with animal products costing the most. ...

Wheat markets were boosted by Thursday’s USDA Grain Stocks report, which contained bullish figures regarding the stockpile of wheat, especially compared to corn, soybeans and oats. The wheat stockpile as of Sept. 1 was estimated to be 1,780 bushels. ...

The crazy wild explosion in oats continued this week, with oats climbing an unprecedented $.60 per bushel over corn. It’s counterintuitive for oats to be worth more than corn and goes against economic laws. The adage “oats know,” which is based on the historical tendency for oats for price moves to precede moves in other grains, especially corn, makes the size and timing of the jump catch even more attention...

Silver, gold, platinum and copper all took it on the chin after the retail sales report was released by the Census Bureau Thursday. The report indicated retail sales increased sharply when a drop in sales was anticipated due to COVID-19. The rationale for the heavy metal selling was that more robust sales indicate less need for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates to boost the economy. ...

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s annual Wyoming speech sent metals, stock indexes, energy and Treasury bond futures sharply higher on Friday. His talk was mainly “dovish” in tone. Toward the end, Powell implied the Fed would delay tapering or raising interest rates soon, partially due to the COVID delta variant’s dampening effect on our economic recovery. ...

Threats of a slowing world economy due to COVID-19 concerns pushed crude oil down this week. Reduced air travel, a slowdown in Chinese oil imports, and a surging U.S. dollar, lowered demand for U.S. crude oil. Diesel fuel, heating oil, and gasoline tagged along for the trip South...

The “average” American chose to ignore the magnitude and urgency of climate change, while some even dared to deny it. Until this year’s droughts, fires and floods, that is. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is comprised of 195 nations, released a new report Monday that paints a dire picture for our planet. ...

So far, North American pig farms have been free of African swine fever (ASF). No longer. It has been found in the Dominican Republic. Some think it’s not a matter of “if” ASF comes to the U.S. but “when” because the virus is highly contagious. It doesn’t infect people, but people can unknowingly spread it. Ticks, infected feed and other contact with the virus are how it’s transmitted...

The World Gold Council is reporting U.S. dollar dumping and record gold-buying, which has stimulated sudden interest in accumulating precious metals. According to the Council, central banks are buying in record amounts. Hot inflation numbers were announced in several European countries. ...

Floods in northwest Germany and Belgium early last week caused “devastation beyond words,” according to Chancellor Angela Merkel. It was viewed as unmistakable evidence of global warming by scientists and elected officials alike. Hundreds are reported dead and hundreds more are missing. Early estimates of the damage exceed $5 billion...

As of Friday, the intensity and number of extreme wildfires are breaking records in our Northwest and British Columbia. Much of our country is the driest it has ever been. Water wars are likely to become more common as shortages become acute. California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington are all under emergency conditions with Idaho also threatened. Nearly a million acres have burned, according to the National Interagency Fire Center...

Rain makes grain. Corn especially was the crop most in need of moisture this summer and we sure got a dose in the driest regions. December corn slammed down to a low Friday of $5.12 ½ after hitting a high of $6.11 on July 1. Soft, red wheat and beans tumbled too, but oats and Minneapolis wheat recovered price-wise as the drought continued in their regions...

The unprecedented heat wave hitting all of California, a wide swath of our northwest and British Columbia has come slightly sooner than climatologists predicted. We’re being served a wake-up call in the form of fatalities in Oregon, Washington and B.C, along with massive wildfires, drying reservoirs and infrastructure failures like buckling roads and power cables frying in the heat. ...