By Dave Sims, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, December 19 – THE ICE Futures Canada canola market finished mixed on Monday, as losses in the US soy complex weighed down the front-month contracts while currency issues propped up the more deferred values.
Declines in vegetable oils were also bearish for canola.
The crop in South America has received favourable weather recently and is shaping up to be very large.
However, the Canadian dollar was about half a cent lower relative to its US counterpart, which made canola more desirable to foreign buyers.
Canadian canola exports are solid and crushers are still fairly busy heading into the holiday season. Crushers have processed 3.4 million tonnes of canola to date, which is ahead of last year’s pace by about 400,000 tonnes.
Canola is considered cheap relative to other oilseeds, according to a trader in Winnipeg.
Milling wheat, barley and durum were untraded.
About 44,648 canola contracts traded on Monday which compares with Friday when 29,979 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for about 39,372 of the contracts traded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.
