By Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
September 5, 2013
Winnipeg – ICE Futures Canada canola contracts were weaker on Thursday, settling near their lows of the day as speculative selling and the large crop prospects weighed on values.
With no immediate weather threats in the forecasts, harvest pressure is building in Western Canada and the mounting expectations for a record large canola crop kept the path of least resistance to the downside in the futures, according to participants.
Speculative selling and spillover from the losses in CBOT soyoil contributed to the declines, said traders.
However, while soyoil was down, CBOT soybeans were higher at the close and the advances there did provide some spillover support for canola.
Scale down exporter and domestic crusher pricing helped temper the declines as well, said traders.
About 35,002 canola contracts were traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 18,389 contracts changed hands.
Milling wheat, durum and barley futures were untraded and unchanged.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.
