'^ J, / ^ 



^i^^'^v^y WEEKLY MARKET REVIEW AND FARKi OUTLOOK 



^^^' "^ By G. L. Jordan 



^ _ Professor, Agricultural Economics 



College of Agriculture 

 University of Illinois .,., 



(Prepared October 30) 



Prices of most farm products weakened considerably Monday 

 and Tuesday but later showed a nice recovery. Early in the week 

 wheat declined more than 3 cents from the preceding Friday close but 

 recovered most of the loss. Corn was strong all through the week 

 and reached a new top price for the past two weeks. Soybean prices 

 have had wide fluctuations. The decline to a low on Monday was only 

 about 3 cents above the low on October I7. The recovery Wednesday, 

 however, was quite spectacular and brought the price up to about the 

 level of the preceding Wednesday. Butter prices had an eight-day 

 uninterrupted climb which ended Monday, Since that time, there has 

 been a rapid fall in prices which eliminated all of the gain of the 

 preceding eight days. Egg prices have changed little other than 

 seasonally and have remained relatively strong. Hog prices are higher 



than a week earlier, and steer i^rices are steady to lower. 



i 

 Trend of sensitive commodity prices : 1 



Longer-time trend: Downward. 



Intermediate trend: Downward. 



Short- time trend: Upward. 

 There are some indications to the effect that the trend of 

 sensitive commodity prices may have turned upward. During the past 

 week the index of sensitive commodity prices we use has remained about 

 stable with very narrow fluctuations and with a side-wise trend. In- 

 asmuch as other factors still point toward increasing prices, it will 

 not be surprising to see the longer-time trends soon turn upward. 



