North American Grain/Oilseed Review: Canola consolidates in narrow range
By Phil Franz-Warkentin, MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, Sept. 3 (MarketsFarm) – The ICE Futures canola market held within a narrow range on Thursday, seeing some consolidation after recent gains.
Losses in Chicago Board of Trade soyoil put some pressure on values, but soybeans were higher on the day.
Positioning ahead of Friday’s stocks report from Statistics Canada accounted for some of the activity. After the government agency revised their old crop canola production estimate higher in a report out earlier this week, traders now expect ending stocks for the 2019/20 crop year also likely ended up above earlier industry projections.
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The Canadian dollar was sharply weaker relative to its United States counterpart, which provided some underlying support for canola.
About 16,892 canola contracts traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 28,803 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 9,844 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade posted small gains in the most active front months, hitting two-year highs in the process.
Weekly United States soybean export sales came in at 1.8 million tonnes of old and new crop business combined, with China accounting for just over half of the business. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also announced additional sales of 318,000 tonnes of soybeans to unknown destinations this morning and an additional 132,000 tonnes to China.
Ideas that recent hot and dry Midwestern weather would cut into the yield prospects for the U.S. crop were also supportive.
The USDA releases its latest production estimates on September 11, with pre-report positioning a feature.
CORN futures were also supported by solid export demand, although prices were lower at the close.
The USDA reported weekly U.S. corn export sales of nearly 2.5 million tonnes of old and new crop business combined. However, most of that business already accounted for from daily announcements.
WHEAT futures were mostly lower, as the market continued to back away from the highs hit earlier this week
Weekly U.S. wheat export sales of nearly 600,000 tonnes were at the higher end of trade guesses, providing some support.
