WEEKLY MARKET REPORT

Week Ending 7th December, 2018

 AWEX Northern Micron Indices Comparison

AWEX INDEX	This Week S23/18	This Week M23/18	Last Sale S22/18	Sydney Change	Last Year Sydney	Sydney Yearly Change
17	2513	2445	2487	+26	2477	+36
18	2379	2326	2372	+7	2273	+106
19	2218	2202	2188	+30	2015	+203
20	2147	2156	2141	+6	1794	+353
21	2129	2133	2129	0	1669	+460
22	-	2140n	-	-1 (M)	1564 (M)	+576 (M)
26	1205	1244n	1335n	-130	1064	+141
28	855	850	-	-	772	+83
30	703n	683	-	-	571	+132
MC	1183	1174n	1199	-16	1433	-250

PENULTIMATE SALE DELIVERS ... NOT MUCH!

When looking at the AWEX EMI it’s hard to imagine little change with the 11 cent fall to 1849 cents but there were many twists and turns in the different sectors as XBs contributed to the slight fall. By week’s end the merino fleece sector had made some reasonable gains, up to 30 cents with some finer, lower style types over 2% VM commonly 50/60 cents to the good.

After a slow start merino skirtings came home with a wet sail again with gains similar to the fleece sector, up to 30 cents. Cardings took a breather from their rapid rises of a few weeks ago losing what they gained last series as all types retreated by 30 cents. After a few sales of whirlwind rises buyers put the brakes on any further gains in the XB sector citing the last series’ jumps too much as most microns lost 70 to 130 cents. The “fake fur” order that led to the sudden rises is still in place and will come into play again in January. Another reason for the fall could’ve been the sudden lift in volume of XBs particularly in Melbourne where only 17% of the Room 2 wools were merino PCS and BLS.

A good sale for merino growers as these types look to be building momentum again. The main Chinese indent buyer was again quiet but local traders filled this void to out-bid him on most occasions operating on a strict buy-in level price, not their usual method of purchasing.  Australia’s biggest buyer, Techwool Trading, flexed their muscle to buy 16% of the total sold this sale buying twice the volume of the next buyer on Thursday.

The sharp decline in the FRX from almost 74 cents on Monday to below 72 cents on Thursday - a 2 cent fall - was too late to help the markets on the Eastern seaboard but did benefit the Fremantle market, up by 20 to 45 cents on Thursday. The release of Australia’s poor GDP figures and trade issues between China and the USA saw financial markets tumble and currencies react. Next week sees the final sale of the year with 48,000 bales on offer - the largest sale since early August. Hopefully buyers will need to buy and ship wool to keep machinery running in January.

Ag Concepts Fwd Prices at 7 December 2018

Main Buyers (This Week)