Grain and oilseed futures, including canola, bounced back on Friday on thoughts that recent declines were overdone and on continued worries about weather.
There were rain and snow showers in Alberta Friday morning and there are forecasts for the cold and wet to affect parts of southern Saskatchewan and especially Manitoba tonight and tomorrow. More moisture is forecast for parts of the Prairies next week. These will continue to delay seeding.
Saskatchewan Agriculture said this week that only a few producers had begun fieldwork and most would require warm dry weather until the second week of May to hit the fields.
Weekly canola crush data is unavailable from the source.
Over the week, canola futures suffered sharp losses, with May down $17.50 per tonne compared to the close May 21 and November down $24.70. The Statistics Canada seeding intentions forecast of a record 19.2 million canola acres took the steam out of the market, but if it continues cold and wet, perceptions could shift back to worries about supply.
On Friday canola was supported by American markets that stormed back after Thursday’s sharp declines.
Traders bought on bargain hunting and short covering.
Soybeans gained 12.25 cents per bushel on the week.
The northwest part of the Midwest is expected to get a little drier next week, allowing seeding, but showers are expected to continue in the southern and eastern part of the Midwest.
The CME Group Inc has proposed widening the daily trading limit in Chicago Board of Trade corn futures and options to 50 cents per bushel, from the current 30 cents.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission must approve the move.
This could lead to greater volatility and big price swings in just a few days.
Winnipeg (per tonne)
Canola May 11 $561.00, up $8.70
Canola Jul 11 $567.40, up $5.60
Canola Nov 11 $563.60, up $4.50
Canola Jan 12 $571.00, up $4.80
The previous day’s best basis narrowed to 50 cents under the May contract according to ICE Futures Canada in Winnipeg.
The May contract’s 14-day Relative Strength Index was 46. The rule of thumb is an RSI of 30 indicates an over sold market and 70 indicates an over bought market.
Western Barley May 11 $200.00 unchanged
Chicago (per bushel)
Soybeans May 11 $13.9275, up 42.5 cents
Soybeans Jul 11 $13.94, up 40.5
Soybeans Nov 11 $13.7425, up 36.5
Corn May 11 $7.54, up 31-0
Corn Dec 11 $6.695, up 32-0
Oats May 11 $3.50, up 11.0
Oats Dec 11 $3.715, up 9.0
Minneapolis (per bushel)
Spring Wheat May 11 $9.4525, up 28.5 cents
Spring Wheat Jul 11 $9.48, up 24.25
Spring Wheat Dec 11 $9.5475, up 26.75
Light crude oil nearby futures in New York $1.07 to $113.93 US per barrel.
The Canadian dollar at noon was $1.0542 US, up from $1.0514 the previous trading day. The U.S. dollar at noon was 94.86 cents Cdn.
The Toronto Stock Exchange composite index ended up 50.39 points, or 0.36 percent, at 13,944.79.
The Standard and Poor’s 500 index was up 3.13 points, or 0.23 percent, to finish unofficially at 1,363.61.
For the week, the Dow rose 2.4 percent, the S&P 500 climbed two percent and the Nasdaq was up 1.9 percent.
For April, the Dow rose four percent, the S&P 500 was up 2.8 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 3.3 percent.
