By Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
August 11, 2014
Winnipeg – Canola contracts on the ICE Futures Canada platform were weaker at midday Monday in thin, choppy trade as participants were squaring positions ahead of Tuesday’s USDA crop report.
The USDA will release its first survey-based estimates on the size of this year’s crops Tuesday morning, and general expectations are for a bearish reading as far as soybeans are concerned.
While Canadian crop prospects are still uncertain, with dryness starting to cause concerns in some regions, conditions for the US soybean crop remain close to ideal. Many analysts anticipate upward revisions to the size of the US crop in subsequent reports.
A firmer tone in the Canadian dollar also weighed on values.
On the other side, steady end user demand and a lack of significant farmer selling did provide some underlying support for canola.
About 4,600 canola contracts had traded as of 10:59 CDT.
Milling wheat, durum, and barley futures were untraded and unchanged.
Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 10:59 CDT:
