Canola contracts settled mostly lower Wednesday after being higher earlier in the day, supported by stronger soybean prices.
Canola fell when buying dried up. The strong Canadian dollar will lessen export prospects and reduce crushers’ profit margins.
Soybeans closed the day higher, supported by new business with China, slow farmer selling and strong technical signals.
The May canola contract fell 20 cents to $379.30 per tonne on 5,130 trades.
The previous day’s best basis widened to -$2.55 per tonne off the May contract in the par region, according to the Winnipeg ICE Futures daily report.
The 14-day Relative Strength Index for May canola rose to 48, according to BarChart.com. The rule of thumb is that an RSI of 30 indicates an oversold market and 70 indicates overbought.
July canola rose 10 cents to $385.80 on 11,392 trades.
New crop November fell 50 cents to $389.40 per tonne on 2,184 trades.
The Canadian dollar at noon was 1.0016 cents US, up from 1.0014 cents at noon the previous trading day. The U.S. dollar at noon was 99.84 cents Cdn.
The Winnipeg May barley contract was steady at $151.10 per tonne. There is now no open interest in the May contract. July was steady at $145.50. December was steady at $150.
Chicago May soybeans rose 11.5 cents US to $9.955 per bushel. November soybeans rose 13.75 cents to $9.77 per bu.
May oats rose three cents to $2.12 per bu.
Light crude oil for June delivery fell 17 cents to $83.68 per barrel.
Analysts say China’s rapeseed crop could fall by one to 1.5 million tonnes this year because of a variety of weather problems.
However, there was no indication this would make it more likely that Beijing will ease import restrictions on Canadian canola contaminated with blackleg fungus.
