Canola continued its slow climb up the markets ladder Thursday, as technical trading took over from headline-induced speculation in wheat and elsewhere over the past few days.

Drought talk in the American Mid-west and Western Canada also fueled some price support, but it was largely positive sounds from the White House about a levelling-off of tariff tit-for-tat with Europe that allowed for greater calm overall.

Canola was up $3.30 per tonne to $492.80 for November, $3.40 to $499.20 for the January contract and $3.30 for the remainder of the 2019 months through July, ranging from $504.70 to $511.60.

On the Chicago Board of Trade August soybeans were off a penny and three-quarters to US$8.59 per bushel and didn’t break above $9 until May 2019, at $9.04-50, although that price was off 2-25 US cents.

U.S. spring wheat was up slightly to $6.25-25 on Chicago, however that was the only wheat that was, with all other being off due to rounds of technical selling, despite drought news from Europe and reduced yield projections from the former soviet socialist republics. The International Grains Council reported a drop in its wheat yield estimates for this crop by 590 million bushels, citing Europe and Russia as the causes.

FarmLink Marketing Solutions completed its Grainworld crop tour in Canada and is projecting a wheat yield of 54.4 bushels per acre average and durum coming it at 39.

The American Wheat Quality Council completed its tour as well, with the wheat belt average scoring a 41.3 bushels per acre average, behind their five-year number of 44.7 and higher than last year’s drought-damaged 35.8.

FarmLink pegged canola yields at 41.9 bushels per acre for the current crop, up from 41 last year and the five-year average of 39.5.