Rising crude oil lifts canola, wiping out early week losses

Concerns about violence in Iraq helped to push vegetable oil prices strongly higher on Friday and canola futures went along for the ride.

The gains today wiped out the loses from earlier in the week and July canola closed at $463.50, up $9.10 per tonne on the day and up 50 cents on the week.

November closed at $460.60, up $10.10 on the day but down $1.50 on the week.

Dry areas of southern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan are getting rain today and rain is expected in central Saskatchewan tonight. Here is the weekend rain accumulation outlook.

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More rain is expected on Tuesday and Wednesday.

It was a generally up day in crop markets as bargain buying and short covering set in after the recent losses that took prices down to multi month lows.

But vegetable oil futures rallied the most, with July soy oil climbing 2.88 percent, reacting to rallying crude oil values.

Sunni militants belonging to a group called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have swept into northern and central Iraq, wrestling control from the Shi’ite controled government.

There is potential for Shi’ite-controled Iran to get involved in the conflict, raising the potential for major disruptions in the Middle East that threaten a major part of the world’s oil supply.

Kansas City hard red winter wheat was lifted higher by poor early harvest results. So far yields in Texas and Oklahoma are ranging from five to 30 bushels an acre and are averaging 19 bu. according to the weekly harvest report from U.S. Wheat Associates. Rains are delaying progress. Protein levels are high.

Gains in Minneapolis spring wheat today were limited by a report from Informa Economics that pegged U.S. spring wheat other than durum at 12.179 million acres, up from 12.059 million in May.

Informa put U.S. durum wheat plantings at 1.799 million acres and all-wheat plantings at 56.185 million acres.

U.S. wheat is overpriced on the world market. Egypt bought 180,000 tonnes of wheat this week, all of it from Romania and Russia.

Over the week, July spring wheat futures fell 3.5 percent and December fell 3.2 percent.

Corn rose today on bargain buying but the momentum remains down as weather in the Midwest looks good for crop development.

Over the week, July corn fell 2.6 percent.

Soybeans rose today on technical factors and short covering. The report from Informa Economics also lent support. It trimmed its U.S. soybean area estimate to 81.778 million acres, from 82.073 million last month.

It kept its corn number unchanged.

Even with the rally today, soybeans fell on the week with the July contract down 2.1 percent.

ICE Futures Canada, dollars per tonne

Canola Jul 2014 463.50 +9.10 +2.00%

Canola Nov 2014 460.60 +10.10 +2.24%

Canola Jan 2015 466.70 +10.00 +2.19%

Canola Mar 2015 469.70 +10.00 +2.18%

Canola May 2015 471.80 +10.10 +2.19%

Milling Wheat Jul 2014 202.00 +1.00 +0.50%

Milling Wheat Oct 2014 203.00 +1.00 +0.50%

Milling Wheat Dec 2014 206.00 unch 0.00%

Durum Wheat Jul 2014 239.00 unch 0.00%

Durum Wheat Oct 2014 230.00 unch 0.00%

Durum Wheat Dec 2014 232.00 unch 0.00%

Barley Jul 2014 135.00 unch 0.00%

Barley Oct 2014 125.00 unch 0.00%

Barley Dec 2014 127.00 unch 0.00%

American crop prices in cents US/bushel, soybean meal in $US/short ton, soy oil in cents US/pound

Chicago

Soybeans Jul 2014 1425.75 +10.5 +0.74%

Soybeans Aug 2014 1369.5 +9.25 +0.68%

Soybeans Sep 2014 1260 +9.25 +0.74%

Soybeans Nov 2014 1221.25 +9 +0.74%

Soybeans Jan 2015 1227.75 +9 +0.74%

Soybeans Mar 2015 1233.5 +8.75 +0.71%

Soybean Meal Jul 2014 467.9 -1.3 -0.28%

Soybean Meal Aug 2014 443.4 -2.7 -0.61%

Soybean Meal Sep 2014 417.4 -1.5 -0.36%

Soybean Oil Jul 2014 39.69 +1.11 +2.88%

Soybean Oil Aug 2014 39.78 +1.1 +2.84%

Soybean Oil Sep 2014 39.76 +1.07 +2.77%

Corn Jul 2014 447 +3 +0.68%

Corn Sep 2014 443 +3 +0.68%

Corn Dec 2014 447.5 +3.75 +0.85%

Corn Mar 2015 458.25 +3.75 +0.83%

Corn May 2015 465 +3.25 +0.70%

Oats Jul 2014 347.25 +2.75 +0.80%

Oats Sep 2014 336.5 +4.25 +1.28%

Oats Dec 2014 332.75 +3.75 +1.14%

Oats Mar 2015 328 +4.25 +1.31%

Oats May 2015 325.25 +4 +1.25%

Wheat Jul 2014 586 +0.75 +0.13%

Wheat Sep 2014 596.5 -0.5 -0.08%

Wheat Dec 2014 617 -4 -0.64%

Wheat Mar 2015 635 -5 -0.78%

Wheat May 2015 646.25 -5.5 -0.84%

Minneapolis

Spring Wheat Jul 2014 684.25 +2.25 +0.33%

Spring Wheat Sep 2014 691.5 +1.5 +0.22%

Spring Wheat Dec 2014 703.75 +2.25 +0.32%

Spring Wheat Mar 2015 710.75 unch 0.00%

Spring Wheat May 2015 715 unch 0.00%

Kansas City

KC HRW Wheat Jul 2014 713.25 +7.75 +1.10%

KC HRW Wheat Sep 2014 715.5 +5.25 +0.74%

KC HRW Wheat Dec 2014 724.25 +4.25 +0.59%

KC HRW Wheat Mar 2015 728.75 +4.25 +0.59%

KC HRW Wheat May 2015 726.5 +4 +0.55%

Light crude oil nearby futures in New York rose 38 cents at $106.91 US per barrel, the highest price since Sept. 18. The U.S. and Brent price of crude oil both rose about $4 per barrel this week on the crisis in Iraq, although there have been no disruption of oil exports so far.

The Bank of Canada noon rate for the loonie was 92.01 cents US, down from 92.16 cents the previous trading day. The U.S. dollar at noon was $1.0868 Cdn.

The stronger oil prices supported oil company shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange composite.

High tech company Intel soared seven percent on an upgraded profit outlook, and that helped to offset lower stock prices in other sectors on Wall Street as traders got the jitters over the Iraq situation.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index closed up 91.98 points, or 0.62 percent, at 15,001.61, its highest point since June 2008.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 41.55 points or 0.25 percent, to 16,775.74.

The S&P 500 gained 6.05 points or 0.31 percent, to 1,936.16.

The Nasdaq Composite added 13.02 points or 0.3 percent, to 4,310.65.

For the week, the TSX rose 1.1 percent, the Dow was down 0.9 percent, the S&P fell 0.7 percent and the Nasdaq was down 0.25 percent.