By Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
August 13, 2014
Winnipeg – Canola contracts on the ICE Futures Canada platform were slightly weaker at midday Wednesday, in relatively light trade as the market saw some consolidation following recent declines.
Follow-through selling in CBOT soybeans and soyoil, after Tuesday’s bearish USDA production report, did put some pressure on canola. However, a broker noted that canola was lagging its US counterparts to the downside with a continued lack of farmer selling behind some of the relative strength.
Continued uncertainty over the size of the Canadian crop ahead of Statistics Canada’s own production estimates on August 21 was also said to be somewhat supportive, with dryness starting to raise concerns in many parts of the Prairies.
Speculators are holding large short positions in canola, but were not aggressively adding to those positions on Wednesday, said a trader.
About 10,000 canola contracts had traded as of 10:53 CDT.
Milling wheat, durum, and barley futures were untraded and unchanged.
Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 10:53 CDT:
