Canola futures fell Friday, ending a week in which the benchmark January contract rose $3.20 or 0.6 percent.
January canola closed Friday at $518.70 per tonne, down $3.10 or 0.59 percent from Thursday.
Canola performed much better over the week than corn, which fell about four percent on weak U.S. exports. Feed importers are buying cheaper corn from Ukraine or dipping into the large world supply of feed wheat.
However, corn retains strength from strong demand from the U.s. ethanol sector.
Soybeans gained 0.2 percent on the week, supported by new demand from China.
Talk of new export demand for canola helped support the Winnipeg contract.
Uncertainty about the European debt crisis and the ability of an American Congressional committee to agree on budget cuts before the U.S. Thanksgiving continued to weigh on all markets.
• Reuters reports large speculators shifted from a net long position to a net short position in Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures and options for the first time in 16 months in the week ended Nov. 15, according to regulatory data released on Friday. The Commodity Future Trading Commision’s weekly Commitments of Traders report also showed that the noncommercial traders slashed their net long position in corn and increased their net short in CBOT wheat.
• There are no serious problems in the South American soybean crop. Argentina’s government this week forecast the crop would be seeded on slightly more acres than last year.
• The current weak La Nina is likely to strength in the coming weeks said the World Meteorological Organization. It is not expected to be as strong as last year, but it is already blamed for excess rain in Australia’s wheat harvest and there is increased potential for downpours in palm oil producer Malaysia that could disrupt production and exports.
• The Canadian Oilseed Processors Association said members crushed 130,972 tonnes of canola in the week ending Nov. 16.
That was an increase of four percent and represented capacity use of about 89 percent.
Winnipeg (per tonne)
Canola Jan 12 $518.70, down $3.10 (-0.59%)
Canola Mar 12 $524.70, down $3.10 (-0.59%)
Canola May 12 $527.50, down $3.30 (-0.62%)
Canola Jul 12 $533.30, down $3.30 (-0.61%)
The previous day’s best basis narrowed to $3 under the January contract.
The January contract’s 14-day Relative Strength Index was 40.
Western Barley Dec 11 $217.00, unchanged
Chicago (per bushel)
Soybeans Jan 12 $11.6825, unchanged
Soybeans Mar 12 $11.7825, down 0.25 cents (-0.02%)
Soybeans May 12 $11.88, unchanged
Corn Dec 11 $6.1025, down 4.25 (-0.69%)
Corn Mar 12 $6.18, down 5.25 (-0.84%)
Oats Dec 11 $3.04, up 4.0 (+1.33%)
Oats Mar 12 $3.04, down 1.0 (-0.33%)
Minneapolis (per bushel)
Spring Wheat Dec 11 $9.1725, down 7.75 cents (-0.84%)
Spring Wheat Mar 12 $8.7525, down 6.25 (-0.71%)
Spring Wheat May 12 $8.43, down 7.0 (-0.82%)
Light crude oil nearby futures in New York fell $1.41 to $97.41 US per barrel.
The Canadian dollar at noon was 97.45 cents US, down slightly from 97.79 the previous trading day. The U.S. dollar at noon was $1.0262 Cdn.
In a preliminary tally, the Toronto Stock Exchange composite closed down 22.99 points, or 0.19 percent at 11,892.44.
The S&P 500 closed down 0.2 points, or 0.02 percent, at 1,215.91.
For the week, the TSX fell 1.8 percent, the Dow fell 2.9 percent, the S&P 500 fell 3.8 percent and the Nasdaq fell four percent.
