Canola futures slipped on Tuesday in light trade, pressured by a stronger loonie.
There was no strong sense of price direction, with traders holding back in advance of Wednesday’s USDA supply and demand report.
November canola settled at $523.30 per tonne, down $2.10 and January settled at $525.30, also down $2.10.
Traders expect the USDA report to slightly trim the size of this year’s U.S. soybean crop but increase the size of year end stocks due to a slow start to this year’s exports.
Minneapolis wheat futures rose on Tuesday on tight supply of high protein wheat in the commercial pipeline and thoughts that USDA will cut its estimate of the size of the U.S. spring wheat crop.
For corn, the average of analysts’ estimates as polled by Reuters pegged production at 12.381 billion bushels, below USDA’s forecast in October for 12.433 billion and below last year’s 12.447 billion.
• Heavy rain this week in the western Midwest and eastern southern plains delayed the wind up of the corn harvest but improved the moisture situation for winter wheat.
• Oilseed analysts Oil World said bigger canola crops in Canada and Australia and smaller crops in Germany and China will leading to larger exports by Canada and Australia
Oil World pegged Canada’s crop at 13.80 million tonnes and forecasted its exports would rise to 7.48 million tonnes.
Statistics Canada’s current forecast for production is 12.928 million tonnes and Agriculture Canada forecasts exports of seven million tonnes. The final crop production report from StatsCan comes out in early December.
Oil World’s forecast for Australian production is 2.75 million tonnes, up from 2.37 million tonnes last season. It sees Australian exports at 1.88 million tonnes, up from 1.50 million last year.
• Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said today he would resign once parliament approves economic reforms. Berlusconi lost his parliamentary majority in a routine vote earlier in the day. He faces corruption and sex scandal charges and there are questions whether he will be able to deliver on the reforms needed to contain the country’s debt problems.
Winnipeg (per tonne)
Canola Nov 11 $523.30, down $2.10 (-0.40%)
Canola Jan 12 $525.30, down $2.10 (-0.40%)
Canola Mar 12 $530.90, down $1.80 (-0.34%)
Canola May 12 $535.20, down $1.80 (-0.34%)
The previous day’s best basis was $15 under the January contract.
The November contract’s 14-day Relative Strength Index was 45.
Western Barley Dec 11 $217.00, up $1.00 (+0.46%)
Chicago (per bushel)
Soybeans Nov 11 $11.95-2, up 3.0 cents (+0.25%)
Soybeans Jan 12 $12.05-0, up 3.25 (+0.27%)
Soybeans Mar 12 $1214-6, up 3.25 (+0.27%)
Corn Dec 11 $6.60-4, up 7.25 (+1.11%)
Corn Mar 12 $6.71-0, up 5.75 (+0.86%)
Oats Dec 11 $3.28-0, up 3.0 (+0.92%)
Oats Mar 12 $3.33-4, down 0.4 (-0.15%)
Minneapolis (per bushel0
Spring Wheat Dec 11 $9.46-2, up 18.0 cents (+1.94%)
Spring Wheat Mar 12 $8.80-4, up 16.76 (+1.94%)
Spring Wheat May 12 $8.57-0, up 20.75 (+2.48%)
Light crude oil nearby futures in New York rose $1.28 to $96.80 US per barrel.
The Canadian dollar at noon was 98.62 cents US, up from 98.31 the previous trading day. The U.S. dollar at noon was $1.0140 Cdn.
In an early tally, the Toronto Stock Exchange composite index ended up 26.87 points, or 0.22 percent, at 12,488.85.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up 14.85 points, or 1.18 percent, at 1,275.97.
