By Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
Feb. 15, 2013
Winnipeg – ICE Futures Canada canola contracts closed mostly lower on Friday, seeing a profit-taking correction after posting gains the previous two sessions.
Positioning ahead of the long weekend was a feature. The Winnipeg market will be closed Monday, February 18, for Louis Riel Day. US markets will also be closed for President’s Day.
While a firmer tone in the nearby CBOT soybean contracts did provide some underlying support for the futures, canola was unable to hold onto any gains of its own after outperforming the US market to the upside earlier this week, said participants. Speculators were noted sellers.
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Ongoing concerns over the tightening canola supply situation in western Canada and a lack of significant farmer selling did help limit the losses, according to traders.
The weak Canadian dollar, which was down by about two-thirds of a cent relative to its US counterpart, was also supportive as the softer currency was helping crush margins see some improvement, according to a trader.
About 24,469 canola contracts were traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 19,383 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for the majority of the activity, with about 22,668 of the contracts traded tied to intermonth spreading.
Milling wheat, and barley futures were untraded and unchanged. Durum was also untraded, but saw prices revised slightly higher after the close.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.
