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Soy sinks on dollar, fertilizer costs 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. Corn requires the higher input cost of nitrogen fertilizers, whereas beans are nitrogen “fixers” and add N to the ground. The USDA will be releasing a major report next Tuesday that will help farmers and investors get a better idea of planting intentions. China’s importing of our ...

Care about your credit score? Get strategic with card limits

If you have credit cards in your wallet, you might track your balances to keep your budget in check, but knowing each card’s credit limit off the top of your head is another story. However, actively managing how much of your credit limits you are using — also known as your credit utilization ratio — can make a big impact on your credit score. Your credit score is a mix of many factors, including your credit usage. If you want to build your credit score, focusing on using less of your credit limits is a powerful way to do it. People with excellent credit tend to have low credit ...

China’s exports stay strong, trade surplus tops $80 billion

BEIJING (AP) — China’s exports remained strong in October, a positive sign for an economy trying to weather power shortages and COVID-19 outbreaks. The country’s customs agency said Sunday that exports totaled $300.2 billion, up 27.1% from a year ago. That was down from a 28.1% increase in September but still healthy. Imports came in at $215.7 billion, a 20.6% rise. Exports and imports are much higher than a year ago, when much of the world was in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is widespread concern that economic headwinds are slowing growth. The world’s ...

Burgum backs lawsuit against vaccine mandate on private businesses

BISMARCK – Gov. Doug Burgum on Friday expressed his strong support for North Dakota’s legal challenge to the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate on private businesses with 100 or more employees. North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem joined 10 other states in asking a court to stop the mandate from taking effect Jan. 4. In a meeting Thursday and when the proposed rule was first proposed in September, Burgum and Stenehjem discussed their shared opposition to the emergency temporary standard by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. “We ...

Futures Files

Thanksgiving Dinner Costs an Arm and a Leg The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the American Farm Bureau released data last 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 $49.00. The feed for turkeys, as well as chickens, hogs, and cattle, contain corn which has been climbing steadily during the past couple of months. Turkey production dropped off after a last year’s price decline during the major COVID wave, confirming commodity prices run through cycles of ...