WINNIPEG – ICE Futures canola contracts made strong gains at the end of trading on Thursday.
The Canadian dollar remained under 75 U.S. cents for most of Thursday, as lower crude oil prices weighed on values. The slide in the dollar was not felt until late in trading. Changes in the loonie often do not move canola bids right away, but take a little bit of time, according to a trader.
The technical bias continued to point to the upside, and canola remained competitive with vegetable oils, which provided support.
Read Also
U.S. livestock: Cattle futures continue rally on constrained supply
Chicago Mercantile Exchange cattle futures rose for the fourth session in a row on Wednesday, as a continued tight supply of cattle and resilient consumer demand for beef boosted futures, traders said.
An ongoing lack of export demand from China continued to temper gains in canola prices. Until the spat between Canada and China is resolved, and the United States and China sign a trade deal, canola exports are not expected to pick up anytime soon.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were stronger on Thursday.
United States President Donald Trump commented the U.S. might keep tariffs in place on Chinese imports, as a means to assure China abides by any trade deal between the two countries.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture released its weekly export sales report Thursday. For the week of March 8 to 14, corn exports were almost 856,000 tonnes, and wheat exports were at 437, 000 tonnes. Soybean exports were close to 400,000 tonnes for the week.
CORN futures were stronger on Thursday.
Flooding in the U.S. has continued to take its toll. There is severe flooding in a number of U.S. states, including Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa and Kansas. Flood damages in Nebraska alone have now climbed to $1.5 billion this week.
The wet conditions could see U.S. farmers switch their planting intentions from corn to soybeans.
Also, flooding has impacted grain transportation in the U.S. Cumulative carloads so far in 2019 are down four per cent, to about 233,000.
WHEAT futures were mixed on Thursday. Chicago and Kansas City wheat were up, but Minneapolis wheat finished unchanged.
A private analytical firm projected Brazil’s wheat crop for 2019/2020 to be 6.6 million tonnes, one million tonnes more than the country’s 2018/19 crop. The firm projected Brazil’s wheat exports to fall to 5.7 million tonnes in 2019/2020 from 7 million tonnes in 2018/2019.
Russia’s agriculture ministry announced on Thursday plans to tighten quality control of the country’s wheat exports.
Ukraine reported its wheat exports for 2018/19 have reached 475.8 million bushels.
Taiwan issued a tender for one million tonnes of milling wheat, which is open until March 22.
Jordan issues a tender for 4.4 million tonnes of milling wheat, which is open until March 26.
OUTSIDE MARKETS
Light crude oil nearby futures in New York was down 25 cents at US$59.98 per barrel.
In the afternoon, the Canadian dollar was trading around US74.82 cents, down from 75.09 cents the previous trading day. The U.S. dollar was C$1.3366.
Winnipeg ICE Futures Canada dollars per tonne.
Canola May 19 468.20s +3.50 +0.75%
Canola Jul 19 476.60s +4.10 +0.87%
Canola Nov 19 488.90s +4.00 +0.82%
Canola Jan 20 495.00s +4.40 +0.90%
Canola Mar 20 498.30s +4.30 +0.87%
American crop prices in cents US/bushel, soybean meal in $US/short ton, soy oil in cents US/pound. Prices are displayed with fractions (2/8, 4/8, and 6/8) instead of decimals. -2 equals .25, -4 equals .50, -6 equals .75. The “s” means it is the settlement.
Chicago
Soybean May 19 910-4s +4-4 +0.50%
Soybean Jul 19 924-2s +4-6 +0.52%
Soybean Aug 19 930-2s +4-2 +0.46%
Soybean Sep 19 935-2s +4-4 +0.48%
Soybean Nov 19 944-6s +4-4 +0.48%
Soybean Meal May 19 315.3s +3.7 +1.19%
Soybean Meal Jul 19 318.9s +3.7 +1.17%
Soybean Meal Aug 19 320.3s +3.7 +1.17%
Soybean Oil May 19 29.10s -0.17 -0.58%
Soybean Oil Jul 19 29.42s -0.18 -0.61%
Soybean Oil Aug 19 29.56s -0.19 -0.64%
Corn May 19 376-2s +4-6 +1.28%
Corn Jul 19 385-4s +4-4 +1.18%
Corn Sep 19 391-6s +3-6 +0.97%
Corn Dec 19 398-6s +3-2 +0.82%
Corn Mar 20 409-0s +2-4 +0.62%
Oats May 19 280-6s +6-2 +2.28%
Oats Jul 19 277-0s +4-4 +1.65%
Oats Sep 19 269-2s +3-2 +1.22%
Oats Dec 19 261-6s +1-0 +0.38%
Oats Mar 20 258-2s +0-6 +0.29%
Wheat May 19 466-4s +1-6 +0.38%
Wheat Jul 19 471-4s +1-4 +0.32%
Wheat Sep 19 480-0s +1-6 +0.37%
Wheat Dec 19 494-6s +1-4 +0.30%
Wheat Mar 20 507-6s +1-0 +0.20%
Minneapolis
Spring Wheat May 19 571-2s -0-2 -0.04%
Spring Wheat Jul 19 571-2s +2-2 +0.40%
Spring Wheat Sep 19 575-6s +2-2 +0.39%
Spring Wheat Dec 19 587-0s +2-2 +0.38%
Spring Wheat Mar 20 598-0s +1-6 +0.29%
Kansas City
Hard Red Wheat May 19 447-0s +3-0 +0.68%
Hard Red Wheat Jul 19 455-2s +3-0 +0.66%
Hard Red Wheat Sep 19 466-4s +2-6 +0.59%
Hard Red Wheat Dec 19 485-2s +2-0 +0.41%
Hard Red Wheat Mar 20 501-4s +1-0 +0.20%
Chicago livestock futures in US¢/pound, Pit trade
Live Cattle Apr 19 129.900s +0.325 +0.25%
Live Cattle Jun 19 123.900s +0.525 +0.43%
Live Cattle Aug 19 119.975s +0.650 +0.54%
Feeder Cattle Mar 19 142.775s +0.525 +0.37%
Feeder Cattle Apr 19 148.925s +0.600 +0.40%
Feeder Cattle May 19 154.000s +1.875 +1.23%
Lean Hogs Apr 19 78.325s +4.500 +6.10%
Lean Hogs May 19 86.600s +4.450 +5.42%
Lean Hogs Jun 19 94.750s +4.500 +4.99%
