By Dwayne Klassen, Commodity News Service Canada
May 10, 2013
Winnipeg –
Canola futures on the ICE Canada trading platform finished Friday’s session on a mixed footing with old crop contracts up and most of the deferreds lower. The buying back of previously sold positions offered the nearby months some support as did continued concerns about tight old crop canola stocks, market watchers said.
Activity in canola was described as extremely volatile, with values moving to both sides of the plus/minus line during the day. Market participants had also taken to the sidelines to await the release of new supply/demand tables from the USDA.
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Support in canola also came from the reluctance of farmers to deliver canola into the cash pipeline. A sharp downswing in the value of the Canadian dollar Friday was also viewed as an underpinning price influence.
The upside in the deferred canola futures were offset by the midday downturn experienced by CBOT soybean values, traders said. The liquidation of positions ahead of the weekend further tempered the upside in canola.
Some selling in the deferred canola values came from reports of seeding progress being made in the southern regions of Alberta and the western regions of Saskatchewan.
The USDA report projecting large new crop US soybean supplies also kept the advances in new crop canola in check, brokers said.
A significant drop off in domestic crusher demand, as evidenced by the release of weekly crush statistics by the Canadian Oilseed Processors Association, or COPA, Friday also capped the upside in canola, brokers said.
There were an estimated 12,830 canola contracts traded Friday, up from the 8,357 contracts that changed hands during the previous session.
No milling wheat, durum or barley contracts were traded during the session.
Prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.
