By Dwayne Klassen, Commodity News Service Canada
February 7, 2013
WINNIPEG – Canola contracts on the ICE Futures Canada platform were trading in a mixed price range at 10:42 CST Thursday morning although the bias was to the upside. Chart-based speculative and commodity fund buying combined with the tight supply situation helped to generate some of the upward price action in canola, market watchers said.
“There’s not a lot of resistance blocking the push higher in the March canola future and participants are trying to take advantage of that today,” a broker commented.
Read Also
Canadian Dollar and Business Outlook: Loonie rises, crude oil retreats
Glacier FarmMedia | MarketsFarm – The Canadian dollar showed strength for the second straight day on Tuesday. The loonie was…
Steady usage of canola by domestic processors and export outlets continued to keep a firm floor in the nearby canola contracts as well, traders said. A small downswing in the value of the Canadian dollar was also viewed as constructive for canola futures.
The upside in canola was being restricted by the taking of profits and by the declines experienced in CBOT soyoil futures. Elevator company hedge selling, tied to steady farmer deliveries of canola into the cash pipeline also helped to slow the price gains. Traders noted that cash bids from processors and elevator companies in select regions of the Canadian prairies were in the C$14.75 to C$15.00 per bushel range, which was encouraging the movement.
Spreading again was a key feature of the activity in canola and accounted for a significant portion of the volume total.
As of 10:42 CST, about 15,301 canola contracts had traded. Of those contracts, spreading accounted for 13,728 of the trades.
Milling wheat, durum and barley contracts were unchanged and untraded.
Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 10:42 CST: