Source: The Business Times — 

THE chill in North America’s housing market has lumber traders saying the commodity’s recent rally may not have much more room to run.

Benchmark futures in Chicago rose as much as 6.1 per cent to US$418.80 per 1,000 board feet on Wednesday (Jan 11), heading for the longest rally in two weeks. The bounce comes after prices slumped to the lowest in more than two years last week.

While major producers are slashing production, buyers are still spooked by rising interest rates and passing up cheap supplies, meaning any price recovery is “not going to go very far”, said Russ Taylor, president of Russ Taylor Global in Vancouver.