Commercial hedging and light speculator selling pressured canola futures lower on Wednesday.
Strong canola basis levels appear to have attracted farmer deliveries that elevator companies are now hedging.
Soybeans also edged lower on new Brazilian forecasts putting the soybean crop there at close to 83 million tonnes. The December USDA forecast for the Brazilian crop was 81 million tonnes. USDA will update its forecasts for U.S. and South American production on Friday.
Most analysts expect USDA will slightly lift its estimate of the 2012 U.S. soybean crop.
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U.S. grains: Soybean futures set two-week high on US weather worry, soyoil rally
Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures touched a two-week high on Friday on worries that heat may threaten U.S. crops and expectations that the country’s biofuel policy would boost demand for soyoil, analysts said.
Traders are cautious this week ahead of the USDA reports that will be released at noon EST. They have a history of surprising the market, generating limit moves on the report day.
Grain industry sources say Chinese millers have recently bought Canadian and American wheat. Wheat prices in China have hit record highs in recent days. China is suffering its coldest winter in 28 years, creating worries about potential damage to the winter wheat crop there.
Winnipeg (per tonne)
Canola Jan 13 $604.00, down $6.80 -1.11%
Canola Mar 13 $582.70, down $6.80 -1.15%
Canola May 13 $575.30, down $4.90 -0.84%
Canola Jul 13 $571.10, down $4.50 -0.78%
Milling Wheat Mar 13 $290.50, unchanged
Milling Wheat May 13 $293.50, unchanged
Milling Wheat Jul 13 $295.50, unchanged
Durum Wheat Mar 13 $312.40, unchanged
Durum Wheat May 13 $316.40, unchanged
Durum Wheat Jul 13 $319.40, unchanged
Barley Mar 13 $243.00, down $4.00 -1.62%
Barley May 13 $244.00, down $4.00 -1.61%
Barley Jul 13 $244.50, down $4.00 -1.61%
Chicago (per bushel)
Soybeans (P) Jan 13 $14.1975, up 6.0 +0.42%
Soybeans (P) Mar 13 $13.855, down 1.0 -0.07%
Soybeans (P) May 13 $13.7525, down 0.75 -0.05%
Soybeans (P) Jul 13 $13.7225, down 0.25 -0.02%
Corn (P) Mar 13 $6.9425, up 5.5 +0.80%
Corn (P) May 13 $6.9375, up 5.0 +0.73%
Corn (P) Jul 13 $6.8825, up 5.25 +0.77%
Oats (P) Mar 13 $3.365, up 4.75 +1.43%
Oats (P) May 13 $3.42, up 5.0 +1.48%
Oats (P) Jul 13 $3.4675, up 5.25 +1.54%
Minneapolis (per bushel)
Spring Wheat Mar 13 $8.405, down 4.75 -0.56%
Spring Wheat May 13 $8.5025, down 3.75 -0.44%
Spring Wheat Jul 13 $8.60, down 3.0 -0.35%
Spring Wheat Sep 13 $8.5925, down 3.5 -0.41%
The Bank of Canada noon rate for the loonie was $1.0134 US, up from $1.0129 the day before.
The U.S. buck was 98.68 cents Cdn.
In early unofficial tallies:
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index rose 17.43 points, or 0.14 percent, at 12,522.24.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 61.97 points, or 0.46 percent, at 13,390.82.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up 3.84 points, or 0.26 percent, at 1,460.99.
The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 14.00 points, or 0.45 percent, at 3,105.81.
