Canola futures and other crops fell on Thursday, pressured by slow exports of U.S. grains and worries about Italy’s debt problems.
November canola closed at $513.50, down $9 or 1.72 percent and January closed at $515.50, also down $9 or 1.72 percent.
Technical, chart related selling was responsible for some of the weakness today.
For the week, canola fell 2.8 percent.
The Winnipeg market is closed Friday for Remembrance Day.
• Losses in corn were limited by support from Wednesday’s USDA supply and demand report.
USDA said 2011 U.S. corn production would total 12.31 billion bushels and yield per acre 146.7 bu. Both numbers were below an average of analysts’ estimates.
U.S. corn ending stocks fell to 843 million bu., but that was above an average of analysts’ estimates for 795 million.
• USDA further trimmed its estimates for crops grown in the northern plains.
Spring wheat fell about 198,000 tonnes from the October report to 12.39 million. Last year’s crop was 16.76 million.
Durum fell about 38,000 tonnes to 1.37 million. Last year’s crop was 2.89 million.
Canola was steady at 694,980 tonnes. Farmers last year harvested 1.11 million.
The spread between Minneapolis hard red spring wheat and Chicago soft wheat is the widest since June 2008. Large world supplies of lower quality wheat are pressuring Chicago but Minneapolis is holding on because of relatively short supply of quality high protein wheat.
Canola Nov 11 $513.50, down $9.00 (-1.72%)
Canola Jan 12 $515.50, down $9.00 (-1.72%)
Canola Mar 12 $522.20, down $8.70 (-1.64%)
Canola May 12 $526.40, down $9.00 (-1.68%)
The previous day’s best basis was $10 under the January contract.
The November contract’s 14-day Relative Strength Index was 42.
Western Barley Dec 11 $217, unchanged
Soybeans Nov 11 $11.58, down 17.75 cents (-1.51%)
Soybeans Jan 12 $11.675, down 18.0 (-1.52%)
Soybeans Mar 12 $11.7725, down 18.25 (-1.53%)
Corn Dec 11 $6.455, down 10.5 (-1.60%)
Corn Mar 12 $6.5475, down 10.25 (-1.54%)
Oats Dec 11 $3.2175, down 2.5 (-0.77%)
Oats Mar 12 $3.275, down 2.5 (-0.76%)
Spring Wheat Dec 11 $9.455, down 6.25 cents (-0.66%)
Spring Wheat Mar 12 $8.7125, down 4.75 (-0.54%)
Spring Wheat May 12 $8.45, down 3.5 (-0.41%)
Light crude oil nearby futures in New York rose $2.04 to $97.78 US per barrel.
The Canadian dollar at noon was 98.14 cents US, down from 98.30 the previous trading day. The U.S. dollar at noon was $1.0190 Cdn.
In an early tally, the Toronto Stock Exchange composite index ended down 47.35 points, or 0.39 percent, at 12,108.87.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up 10.58 points, or 0.86 percent, at 1,239.68.
