Canola finds it hard to rally Thursday

Canola futures were mixed Thursday and closed with old crop up a few cents and new crop down.

May canola closed at $621.60 per tonne, up 90 cents.

November closed at $580.70, down 40 cents.

Markets are closed Friday. For the week, May canola was down 90 cents and November was up $5.50.

Canola started the day lower, but then edged a little higher. Factors affecting trade were thoughts that the price was overbought and due for a downward correction, and elevator company hedging. Snow falling in Alberta and forecast for Saskatchewan will provide welcome soil moisture.

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Good demand continues to support canola. Soybeans rose today, lifted by higher than expected weekly U.S. exports.

• Traders are cautious ahead of next week’s USDA supply and demand report. A key set of numbers in those reports will be the forecast of year end U.S. stocks. Last week, USDA’s estimates of March 1 stocks were lower than expected and now the trade expects cuts to the year end number forecast.

Reuters polled analysts for their take on year end stocks. The averages of the trade estimates are wheat 792 million bu. corn 721million bu. and soybeans 246 million bu.

The trade will also watch to see how much USDA cuts its forecasts of South American soybean production, in light of cuts that private forecasters have made recently.

• American farmers got off to a fast start on seeding but activity will really pick up one the April 6 insurance date is reached.

Farmers hope to seed corn by mid-May as yields tend to drop off after then.

Winnipeg (per tonne)

Canola May 12 $621.60, up $0.90 +0.14%

Canola Jul 12 $617.10, up $0.50 +0.08%

Canola Nov 12 $580.70, down $0.40 -0.07%

Canola Jan 13 $585.20, down $0.30 -0.05%

The best basis for the previous day was +$2.40 over the May contract said Ice Futures Canada.

The 14-day RSI was 75.

Western Barley May 12 $230.00, unchanged

Western Barley Jul 12 $230.00, down 3.00 -1.29%

Milling Wheat Oct 12 $270.00, unchanged

Milling Wheat Dec 12 $275.00, unchanged

Milling Wheat Mar 13 $ 280.00, unchanged

Durum Wheat Oct 12 $275.00, unchanged

Durum Wheat Dec 12 $279.50, unchanged

Durum Wheat Mar 13 $286.10, unchanged

Barley Oct 12 $186.50, unchanged

Barley Dec 12 $190.00, unchanged

Barley Mar 13 $191.50, unchanged

Chicago (per bushel)

Soybeans May 12 $14.34, up 14.5 cents +1.02%

Soybeans Jul 12 $14.3775, up 14.0 +0.98%

Soybeans Nov 12 $13.815, up 6.0 +0.44%

Corn May 12 $6.5825, up 1.5 +0.23%

Corn Jul 12 $6.5225, up 1.5 +0.23%

Corn Dec 12 $5.5025, up 6.0 +1.10%

Oats May 12 $3.37, up 2.0 +0.60%

Oats Jul 12 $3.355, up 2.25 +0.68%

Oats Dec 12 $3.39, unchanged

Minneapolis (per bushel)

Spring Wheat May 12 $8.46, up 0.25 cent +0.03%

Spring Wheat Jul 12 $8.39, down 1.75 -0.21%

Spring Wheat Sep 12 $8.2425, down 4.0 -0.48%

Spring Wheat Dec 12 $8.145, down 4.5 -0.55%

The nearby New York light sweet crude contract rose $1.84 to $103.31.

The Canadian dollar at noon was $1.0073 US, up from $1.0038 the previous trading day. The U.S. dollar at noon was 0.9928 Cdn.

Statistics Canada reported that the economy created 82,000 jobs in March, much more than the about 10,000 jobs that economists had expected.

The jobless rate fell to 7.2 per cent from 7.4 per cent in February.

U.S. March job numbers will come out Friday.

In unofficial tallies:

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index closed down 75.55 points, or 0.62 percent, at 12,103.11.

The Dow Jones Industrial closed down 16.50 points, or 0.13 percent, at 13,058.25.

The S&P 500 fell 1.01 points, or 0.07 percent, at 1,397.95.

The Nasdaq rose 12.41 points, or 0.40 percent, at 3,080.50.

For the week the TSX fell 2.3 percent, the Dow was down 1.1 percent, S&P was down 0.7 percent and the Nasdaq dropped 0.4 percent.

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