This week, since I focussed on the price trend of soybeans, I was constantly checking and refreshing the CME group page on daily settlements. (http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/agricultural/grain-and-oilseed/soybean_quotes_settlements_futures.html). They have charts that show the daily and weekly fluctuations in price, which is useful. There was another section of this website that some might find of interest. Under their ‘Education’ tab, there is a link to ‘Market Insights’ which contains some analysis of oil prices and the drought and so on from a few weeks ago. It made for some good readings for background information to improve my understanding.
I was also referred to the website Business Recorder (http://www.brecorder.com/) by a classmate. It is a Pakistani news bulletin which carried some information on the soybean futures this week, which helped me understand why there was the initial downward, and then an upward trend in prices. Moreover, it was interesting to get the perspective of other countries. For instance, in one of their articles I learned that India is the world’s largest edible oils importer (which it imports unrefined from Indonesia) (1). Due to the fall in prices of crude palm oil (which in turn was due to higher inventories and weak demand in the major producing countries), importers in India are suffering huge losses and are therefore reluctant to sign any new contracts. This because the buyers (Indian edible oil refineries) are suspecting that price will fall even further, given the lack of stability in prices. This lower demand will perhaps drive the price of palm oil even lower, which may then go on to affect the soybean market.
Reading into markets this way is very new to me so I enjoy it every time I am able to connect the dots in this way!
2 replies on “Week 3: Cool Sources of Information”
Thanks for the reference to Business Reader – great, easy to understand summaries of recent past and future market dynamics!
(By which I mean Business Recorder, obviously.)