By Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
WINNIPEG, July 16 – Canola contracts on the ICE Futures Canada platform were weaker at midday Thursday, continuing their week-long downtrend as speculative long liquidation and improving Canadian crop prospects continued to weigh on prices.
While production will be down on the year, due to drought conditions in parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan, recent weather has been more favourable to crop development helping alleviate some of those concerns. Expectations for good yields in Manitoba were also somewhat bearish, according to participants.
A softer tone in CBOT soyoil put some pressure on canola as well.
However, weakness in the Canadian dollar did provide some support and canola crush margins were up on the day. A lack of aggressive farmer selling helped limit the losses as well, although country deliveries remain steady for the time being.
About 8,200 canola contracts had traded as of 10:57 CDT.
Milling wheat, durum, and barley were all untraded.
Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 10:57 CDT:
