By Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
Dec. 4, 2013
Winnipeg – ICE Canada canola contracts were lower Wednesday morning, as the market reacted to updated production estimates from Statistics Canada.
StatsCan pegged canola production in 2013/14 (Aug/Jul) at just under 18.0 million tonnes, which was at the top end of trade guesses and well above the already record 16.0 million tonnes predicted in an earlier report and the year-ago level of 13.9 million.
The reaction to the report sent canola down to fresh contract lows, which was expected to encourage some additional speculative selling.
However, continued weakness in the Canadian dollar did provide some underlying support. Ideas that canola was looking underpriced compared to other oilseeds also helped underpin the futures.
About 15,000 canola contracts had traded as of 8:47 CST.
Milling wheat, durum, and barley futures were all untraded, although wheat saw some price adjustments following Tuesday’s close.
Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 8:47 CST:
