Wool prices rebound with EMI at 1545c

Before the start of this week's sales Wes McNaughton, trading manager for leading wool buyer, Fox & Lillie, predicted less volatility in the Merino wool market in the next three or four weeks before shearing gets into full swing in Victoria.

The wool market has been hit by wild price fluctuations so far this selling season on the back of deep global trade and economic uncertainty triggered, in large part, by Donald Trump's bid to reduce the United States' trade imbalance with China.

Last week's sale saw a 27c drop in the EMI on the first day of selling but buyers got stuck into the 17,259 bales on offer on the second day and in the process pushed up the indicator by one cent to 1517c.

That small positive note gained strength immediately when sales resumed this week in Sydney, Fremantle and Melbourne.

AWEX said prices continued to rise on the first day of selling right up to the final hammer in the Fremantle market which sold last.

By day's end the individual micron price guides rose by 10 to 31c in the east and by 35 to 49c in the west, AWEX said.

As Sydney only sold on the first day, Melbourne opened in isolation on day two and the market continued to climb, although modestly when compared with the hefty gains achieved on the first day.

The Melbourne micron price guides rose by 10 to 34c which pushed up the EMI by another 14c to post a 28c gain for the week.

Micron price guides at Fremantle added another 26 to 36c. Fremantle's price guides for 19.5 through to 21.0 micron are sitting above those of the eastern centres.

The Northern Indicator is now sitting on 1560c (up 15c) while the Southern Indicator made a 27c gain for the week to reach 1527c.

The Western Indicator jumped a whopping 51c to hit 1672c.

This week's pass-in rate was 7.1 per cent on an offering of 29,760 bales. Only 4972 bales were offered at Sydney's one-day sale.

Crossbred wools performed better than in recent weeks, making solid gains on the second day of selling day in Melbourne.

AWEX said the large pass-in rates of the previous two months has left a growing stockpile of wool in broker's stores.

Some of that wool will hit the market next week with a hefty 39,446 bales now rostered for sale.