By Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
March 14, 2013
Winnipeg – ICE Futures Canada canola contracts were mixed on Thursday, although the bias was to the upside in most months as solid end user demand and a lack of willing sellers provided support.
After initially dropping in sympathy with CBOT soybeans, canola uncovered some technical support to the downside. The speculative selling backed away and speculators started covering some short positions, said a broker. A move by CBOT soyoil off of its lows for the day helped encourage the recovery in canola.
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A lack of producer selling provided further support for canola, as farmers were said to have “locked their bins” after making good sales recently.
Routine export and domestic crusher demand, was another supportive factor, said participants.
On the other side, the large South American soybean crop continued to overhang the oilseed markets, putting some pressure on canola values.
The stronger Canadian dollar, which was up by half a cent relative to its US counterpart, was another bearish price influence.
About 15,252 canola contracts were traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 11,201 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 7,750 of the contracts traded.
Milling wheat, durum and barley futures were untraded and unchanged.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.
