Canola futures closed out their worst week in three months, dropping $14.60 per tonne from the previous Friday.
After Thursday’s price rebound on news that China was considering lowering duties on imported food, the market on Friday was again affected by China policy, this time negatively.
China increased the amount of money banks must hold in reserve, a move intended to cool inflation.
Grain and other commodity traders believe this could reduce the amount of crops and other raw materials that China buys.
That weakened grains and oilseeds generally.
Canola also was weakened by falling crush margins, a factor that might have shown up in weekly crush numbers.
The Canadian Oilseed Processors Association said members crushed 114,909 tonnes of canola in the week closing Feb. 16. That was down 7.4 percent from the week before and represented a crush capacity of about 79 percent.
Despite the down week, crop prices have strong fundamental support and in the background are worries that seeding in Canada and the U.S. could get off to a slow start, or not at all, because of saturated soil, heavy snow cover and forecasts for a cool spring.
Winnipeg
Canola Mar 11 $585.90 down $3.90 per tonne
Canola May 11 $594.10 down $4.00.
Canola Jul 11 $601.70 down $4.00.
Canola Nov 11 $575.50 down $4.30.
The previous day’s best basis was $16.20 under the March contract according to ICE Futures Canada in Winnipeg.
The March contract 14-day Relative Strength Index was 44. The rule of thumb is an RSI of 30 indicates an over sold market and 70 indicates an over bought market.
Western Barley Mar 11 $194 per tonne unchanged
Western Barley May 11 $205 unchanged
Chicago
Soybeans Mar 11 $13.63 ½ per bu. down 41 cents
Soybeans May 11 $13.75 ¼ down 41 ¼ cent
Corn Mar 11 $7.09 ¾ down three cents
Corn May 11 $7.20 ¼ down 2 ¾ cents
Oats Mar 11 $4.09 ¾ down 5 ¼ cents.
Oats May 11 $4.17 ½ down 5 ¼ cents.
Minneapolis
Spring Wheat Mar 11 $9.55 ½ down 25 ½ cents.
Spring Wheat May 11 $9.66 ½ down 24 ¼ cents.
Spring Wheat Dec 11 $9.84 ½ down 26 ½ cents.
In New York, crude oil for March delivery fell 16 cents to $86.20 US per barrel. All deferred months rose with April climbing 87 cents to $89.71.
The Canadian dollar at noon was $1.0173 US, up from $1.0164 the previous trading day. The U.S. dollar at noon was 98.30 cents Cdn.
The Toronto Stock Exchange composite index fell 13.04 points to 14,123.11.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 2.58 points to 1,343.01.
For the week, the TSX rose 2.6 percent, the Dow and the S&P 500 gained one percent, and the Nasdaq added 0.9 percent.
