Oilseeds retreated on Friday largely because traders believe soybean trade has begun a seasonal shift to South America.
Corn and wheat climbed.
On the week, canola fell $8.90 per tonne.
Egypt president Hosni Mubarak finally gave in to public protests and resigned on Friday. He handed power to a military council.
Oil and gold fell on the news, but U.S. stock markets rose. Crop markets had little reaction. Egypt bought wheat today, including some soft wheat from Ontario.
Soybeans were pressured lower by a seasonal shift in business to South American suppliers. Early harvest has begun in Brazil where a record large crop is expected. The weather has turned more favourable in Argentina, halting the damage caused by drought earlier in the year.
China’s soybean demand for the next few months might turn to South America, but it has already purchased record amounts of new crop U.S. soybeans.
Corn rose on lingering support from Wednesday’s USDA report that cut the forecast for U.S. year end corn stocks.
There was speculation that high corn costs would cause China to meet its rising feed needs by importing cheaper Australian feed wheat and distillers dried grain.
Wheat was supported by continued strong demand and worries that a rapid swing in the hard red winter wheat belt from recent icy weather to temperatures near 20 C next week will further stress the crop.
Light snow yesterday and today in some of China’s drought-suffering wheat crop was not expected to have a major impact.
The central government yesterday announced new measures to support agriculture, including money to drill 1,350 wells for irrigation. See China television’s coverage of the impact of drought on the wheat crop at:
http://english.cntv.cn/program/china24/20110211/109931.shtml
Cotton hit an all time record of $2 per pound today. In the 2008 battle for acres, cotton was a market laggard and lost area to soybeans and corn, but this year U.S. cotton acreage will increase, creating even more pressure on crop prices.
The Canadian Oilseed Processors Association said members crushed 124,035 tonnes of canola in the week ending Feb. 9, up almost five percent from the week before. That represents 85.4 percent of capacity.
In Winnipeg, March canola fell $11.20 to $600.50 per tonne on 13,906 trades.
May fell $11.40 to $609.10 on 7,192 trades.
The new crop November 2011 contract fell $9.90 to $596.50.
The previous day’s best basis was $15.70 under the March contract according to ICE Futures Canada in Winnipeg.
The March contract 14-day Relative Strength Index was 50. The rule of thumb is an RSI of 30 indicates an over sold market and 70 indicates an over bought market.
March barley futures were steady and untraded at $194. May and July were $205. October rose $10 to $195 and December rose $5 to $195.
Chicago March soybeans fell 17 cents to $14.16 per bushel.
March corn rose 8 cents to $7.065 per bu.
March oats fell one cent to $4.18 per bu.
March Minneapolis hard spring wheat rose three cents to $10.1775 per bu. New crop December rose 5.25 cents to $10.3525.
In New York, crude oil for March delivery fell 1.15 cents to $85.58 US per barrel.
The Canadian dollar at noon was $1.0098 US, up from $1.0045 the previous trading day. The U.S. dollar at noon was 99.03 cents Cdn.
Mubarak‘s resignation depressed the price of crude oil and share prices of crude oil producers. That pressured the Toronto Stock Exchange composite index, which fell 73.81 points to 13,766.76. On the week, it fell less than 0.2 percent
The wider stock market rallied with the reduction in uncertainty in Egypt. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 7.28 points to 1,329.15.
For the week, the Dow was up 1.5 percent and both the S&P and Nasdaq were up 1.4 percent.
