Canola has flat day

Canola futures ended the week listlessly, with most other grains, but did better than oilseed bellwether soybeans, which fell in Chicago futures trade.

Winnipeg November canola futures prices fell a microscopic 10 cents per tonne, with January falling 20 cents per tonne, into the Friday close.

Canola hasn’t enjoyed the soaring rise of soybeans, and lately has had trouble rallying as a big prairie crop has begun pouring into the elevators.

Generally it was a mixed day in crop commodity markets. Soybeans fell 10 cents per bushel in most Chicago futures contracts as worries about China’s continuing economic slowing challenged notions that it could gulp down any amount of soybeans the world can produce.

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But wheat contracts in North America rose, with the strongest gains of 10 to 13 cents per bushel in Chicago winter wheat contracts. Kansas City winter wheat rose 11 cents per bushel in most contracts, while Minneapolis hard red spring wheat rose seven to eight cents per bushel, continuing the pattern of protein premiums being lost.

All eyes are beginning to look toward next week’s U.S. Department of Agriculture reports, and traders are backing away from the markets and lightening positions.

Generally the world’s commodity and equity markets were subdued Friday, as Thursday’s europhoria over commitments of the European Central Bank to buy dodgy Spanish and Italian government bonds was doused by much worse than expected U.S. jobs data, which showed only half the gains many analysts expected and which are beneath even the number of jobs needed per month to keep the unemployment rate flat at 8.1 percent.

But stock markets mostly edged slightly higher as hopeful traders chose to decide that the bad employment figures would make the U.S. Federal Reserve more likely to engage in more quantitative easing, and that at least in the short term would be a positive.

Winnipeg (per tonne)

Canola Nov 12 $640.60, up $0.60 +0.09%

Canola Jan 13 $644.50, up $0.70 +0.11%

Canola Mar 13 $645.50, up $0.60 +0.09%

Canola May 13 $633.90, up $0.40 +0.06%

Milling Wheat Oct 12 $298.20, up $4.20 +1.43%

Milling Wheat Dec 12 $305.70, up $4.20 +1.39%

Milling Wheat Mar 13 $315.20, up $4.20 +1.35%

Durum Wheat Oct 12 $306.90, up $1.50 +0.49%

Durum Wheat Dec 12 $311.40, up $1.50 +0.48%

Durum Wheat Mar 13 $318.00, up $1.50 +0.47%

Barley Oct 12 $260.00, down $4.50 -1.70%