Canola dips on profit taking; wheat up on frost damage worry

Canola futures fell a little on Friday but posted gains over the trading week.

May closed at $469.70, down $3.60 on the day.

But on the week May rose $8.70 or 1.9 percent.

November closed at $494.10, down $3 on the day, but up $9.50 on the week or almost two percent.

The weaker trade today was related to profit taking after good gains earlier in the week, sparked by concerns about tight U.S. soybean stocks.

Also, rising prices and improving basis trigger new farmer sales that cap gains.

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Chicago cattle futures regained a ground on Monday to maintain a fairly level trajectory after last week’s fall.

Prairie farmers are eager to start spring fieldwork but temperatures are expected to remain mostly below normal all next week in central Saskatchewan. The early week will be better in Alberta and Manitoba, but moisture is expected across much of the Prairies Wednesday and Thursday.

U.S. wheat futures firmed on Thursday, supported by short-covering, concerns that a recent cold snap in key Plains growing areas damaged some of the crop and worries that grain shipments from the Black Sea could be disrupted by political unrest in Ukraine, traders said.

Wheat also received support from better-than-expected export sales in a weekly U.S. government report.

Soybeans were mixed, with old-crop contracts weakening on some mild profit taking after bigger-than-expected crush data sparked a rally that pushed prices to a nine-month high earlier in the week. New-crop soy contracts edged higher on unwinding of bull spreads.

Corn prices fell through key support points on expectations that warming weather will let farmers pick up their pace of planting during the next week.

Traders noted some end-of-week position squaring in all three commodities. The Chicago Board of Trade will be closed tomorrow for the Good Friday holiday.

Chicago May soft red winter wheat closed up 3-1/4 cents at $6.91-1/4 a bushel. Kansas City May hard red winter wheat, which tracks the crop in the U.S. Plains, was up 3-1/2 cents at $7.58 a bushel.

“The weather concerns are centered around hard wheat, and you’ve had a freeze event at the beginning of the week. The thing is, you don’t see that damage right away,” said Terry Linn of the Linn Group, a Chicago brokerage. “You need to wait until the crop gets farther along to be able to tell.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Thursday morning that weekly export sales of wheat for the 2013-14 crop year were 438,000 tonnes, topping forecasts ranging from 50,000 to 250,000 tonnes.

CBOT wheat futures rose 4.6 percent this week.

CBOT soybeans for May delivery shed 4-3/4 cents to $15.14 a bushel while May corn dipped 2-3/4 cents to $4.94-3/4 a bushel. On Thursday, the May corn contract fell below its 20-day moving average for the first time since Jan. 24.

Compared to the prvious Friday close, May soybeans rose 3.5 percent, their biggest weekly gain in 10 weeks. Corn fell 0.8 percent during the week.

The USDA said that old-crop soybean export sales totaled 19,200 tonnes, within market expectations. For weeks, traders have been bracing for a report that showed large cancellations from China, the world’s top buyer of the oilseed.

Chinese buyers may default on a further 1.2 million tonnes of soybeans worth about $900 million being shipped from the United States and South America, to avoid incurring huge losses in a depressed local market, the country’s top soy buyer said.

“It is kind of a serious issue with China defaulting instead of canceling,” said Terry Roggensack, analyst with the Hightower Report in Chicago. “It is a scarier word when they default.”

Winnipeg ICE Futures Canada dollars per tonne

Canola May 2014 469.70 -3.60 -0.76%

Canola Jul 2014 479.30 -3.00 -0.62%

Canola Nov 2014 494.10 -3.00 -0.60%

Canola Jan 2015 500.90 -3.10 -0.62%

Canola Mar 2015 507.20 -3.10 -0.61%

Milling Wheat May 2014 222.00 +2.00 +0.91%

Milling Wheat Jul 2014 220.00 +2.00 +0.92%

Milling Wheat Oct 2014 223.00 +2.00 +0.90%

Durum Wheat May 2014 250.00 unch 0.00%

Durum Wheat Jul 2014 250.00 unch 0.00%

Durum Wheat Oct 2014 252.00 unch 0.00%

Barley May 2014 139.00 -1.00 -0.71%

Barley Jul 2014 140.00 -1.00 -0.71%

Barley Oct 2014 140.00 -1.00 -0.71%

American crop prices in cents US/bushel, soybean meal in $US/short ton, soy oil in cents US/pound

Chicago

Soybeans May 2014 1514 -4.75 -0.31%

Soybeans Jul 2014 1502.25 -6.5 -0.43%

Soybeans Aug 2014 1420.5 -3.5 -0.25%

Soybeans Sep 2014 1298.25 -1.5 -0.12%

Soybeans Nov 2014 1239.25 +2 +0.16%

Soybeans Jan 2015 1244.25 +2 +0.16%

Soybean Meal May 2014 488.3 -2.7 -0.55%

Soybean Meal Jul 2014 478 -1.8 -0.38%

Soybean Meal Aug 2014 447.4 -1.4 -0.31%

Soybean Oil May 2014 43.41 -0.3 -0.69%

Soybean Oil Jul 2014 43.66 -0.27 -0.61%

Soybean Oil Aug 2014 43.5 -0.23 -0.53%

Corn May 2014 494.75 -2.75 -0.55%

Corn Jul 2014 500.5 -3 -0.60%

Corn Sep 2014 498.25 -2.5 -0.50%

Corn Dec 2014 496.75 -2.25 -0.45%

Corn Mar 2015 504.5 -2 -0.39%

Oats May 2014 404 -1 -0.25%

Oats Jul 2014 355.75 -2 -0.56%

Oats Sep 2014 338.75 -1.5 -0.44%

Oats Dec 2014 330 -0.75 -0.23%

Oats Mar 2015 329.5 -1.5 -0.45%

Wheat May 2014 691.25 +3.25 +0.47%

Wheat Jul 2014 699 +3.75 +0.54%

Wheat Sep 2014 708.25 +3.75 +0.53%

Wheat Dec 2014 721 +4.25 +0.59%

Wheat Mar 2015 733.5 +4.5 +0.62%

Minneapolis

Spring Wheat May 2014 732.75 +6.25 +0.86%

Spring Wheat Jul 2014 739.75 +4.75 +0.65%

Spring Wheat Sep 2014 746 +5.25 +0.71%

Spring Wheat Dec 2014 756.75 +4.75 +0.63%

Spring Wheat Mar 2015 765.25 +4.75 +0.62%

Kansas City

KC HRW Wheat May 2014 758 +3.5 +0.46%

KC HRW Wheat Jul 2014 765 +4.25 +0.56%

KC HRW Wheat Sep 2014 771.5 +3.75 +0.49%

KC HRW Wheat Dec 2014 781 +3.25 +0.42%

KC HRW Wheat Mar 2015 784 +2.25 +0.29%

Light crude oil nearby futures in New York rose 54 cents at $104.30 US per barrel.

The Canadian dollar at noon was 90.93 cents US, up from 90.68 cents the previous trading day. The U.S. dollar at noon was $1.0998 Cdn.

Reports on employment, manufacturing and retail sales in the United States yesterday and today indicated the American economy might be picking up a little after a slowdown associated with the very cold winter.

Canadian inflation in March rose to 1.5 percent from 1.1 percent the month before. The increase was more than expected.

Core inflation, with volatile measures such as energy prices taken out, rose to 1.3 percent from 1.2 percent.

In afternoon trade, the TSX composite and major U.S. stock indexes were trading up a little.