Canola futures fell back a little Thursday, on a day with relative vegetable oil strength, cereal weakness and overall world worry.
November Winnipeg canola futures ended down $1.80 per tonne at $569.50 and down $1.90 to $587.90 on the March.
Soy oil in Chicago fell two-thirds of a percent to 58.33 cents per pound and soybeans fell 7.5 cents per bushel to $14.18.25.
Such a light paddling seemed a trifle in comparison to the drubbing experienced by the cereals, with Minneapolis September spring wheat futures down 14.75 cents to $9.49.50 per bu., Chicago September corn down 13.25 cents per bu. to $7.23.25. December Chicago oats were down 8.25 cents to $3.53.25.
In a week of world mood flip-flopping about the seriousness of problems in Europe and the United States, Thursday was a flop to the worse, with most world markets down after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke failed to wave a magic wand of quantitative easing in front of the U.S. Congress and European monetary officials similarly not producing any unexpected tricks.
Most commodities fell, although the anxiety indicator commodities of precious metals, the U.S. dollar and U.S. treasuries rose.
New York crude oil fell half a percent, while ICE Brent fell more than one and a half percent.
Copper fell slightly.
Canola has held strong recently in spite of bearish stocks revisions by Statistics Canada and widespread talk of a big crop coming in, something that some traders are attributing to canola’s relative cheapness compared to other vegetable oil crops.
Some of the action in U.S. futures markets this week has been restrained as many traders await the Monday U.S. Department of Agriculture reports.
Traders are also watching closely for reaction to Thursday evening’s speech by U.S. president Barack Obama, in which he is believed to be officially announcing another $300 billion in stimulus spending. Speeches such as these can galvanize market mood – one way or the other – and provoke medium term trends.
Winnipeg (per tonne)
Canola Nov 11 $569.50, down $1.80
Canola Jan 12 $579.00, down $1.80
Canola Mar 12 $587.90, down $1.90
Canola May 12 $593.90, down $2.20
Western Barley Oct 11 $215.00, unchanged
Chicago (per bushel)
Soybeans Sep 11 $14.0725, down 3.75 cents
Soybeans Nov 11 $14.1825, down 2.50
Soybeans Jan 12 $14.2850, down 3.00
Corn Sep 11 $7.2325, down 13.25
Corn Dec 11 $7.3400, down 14.00
Oats Sep 11 $3.5325, down 2.00
Oats Dec 11 $3.5325, down 8.25
Minneapolis (per bushel)
Spring Wheat Sep 11 $9.4950, down 14.75 cents
Spring Wheat Dec 11 $9.0825, down 18.25
Spring Wheat Mar 12 $9.0675, down 18.75
The previous day’s best canola basis was $25.46 under the November contract according to ICE Futures Canada in Winnipeg.
Light crude oil nearby futures in New York dropped 29 cents at $89.05 US per barrel.
The Canadian dollar at noon was $1.0143 US, up from $1.0118 the previous trading day. The U.S. dollar at noon was 98.59 cents.
