By Dwayne Klassen, Commodity News Service Canada
January 10, 2013
WINNIPEG – Canola futures on the ICE Canada trading platform ended Thursday’s session narrowly mixed, although the bias was to the upside. Values moved to both sides of the plus/minus line during the day with participants hesitant to take on large positions ahead of new USDA supply/demand tables that are scheduled for release on Friday, market watchers said.
Some of the downward price action in canola was associated with aggressive farmer deliveries of canola into the cash pipeline. Brokers noted that grain companies had been encouraging farmers to take advantage of the premiums being offered by them ahead of the USDA report.
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General firmness in the Canadian dollar Thursday contributed to the bearish sentiment in the market with small declines in CBOT soybean values also encouraging the price slide, traders said.
Talk of export demand for canola starting to wane, also fueled some of the price weakness in the commodity.
Underlying support in canola came from steady domestic crusher demand and continued concerns about the tight ending stocks scenario for canola, brokers said. Strength in CBOT soyoil futures helped to generate some support.
The buying back of previously sold positions ahead of the report also offered some underlying support for values.
There were an estimated 14,444 canola contracts traded Thursday, down from the 12,103 contracts that changed hands during the previous session. Of the contracts that changed hands, 9,332 were spread related.
No milling wheat, durum and barley contracts were traded.
Prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.
