By Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
May 2, 2013
Winnipeg – ICE Futures Canada canola contracts closed lower on Thursday, as bearish technical signals and speculative selling weighed on values.
Fund traders were noted sellers as they were liquidating long positions and booking profits, according to a broker. A weaker tone in CBOT soyoil put further pressure on canola.
Forecasts calling for warmer and drier weather across the Prairies over the next week weighed on canola as well. The improving weather was seen alleviating some of the concerns over planting delays in western Canada.
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Scale down exporter and domestic crusher demand provided underlying support, limiting the losses to some extent, said traders.
Statistics Canada releases its latest stocks report on Friday, and positioning ahead of the data accounted for some of the activity in the futures as well.
About 17,473 canola contracts were traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 20,516 contracts changed hands. Inter-month spreading was only a minor a feature, accounting for about 2,914 of the contracts traded.
Milling wheat, durum and barley futures were untraded and unchanged on Thursday.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.
