By Glen Hallick, MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, Dec. 8 (MarketsFarm) – Intercontinental Exchange canola futures closed lower on Friday, in an about-face following the release the United States Department of Agriculture report on global oilseeds.
Much like Statistics Canada at the beginning of this week, the USDA upped its call on Canadian canola production for 2023/24. The latter raised its output number by one million tonnes at 18.8 million and increased ending stocks 466,000 tonnes to 1.67 million. StatCan said on Dec. 4, this year’s canola harvest was 18.3 million tonnes, up by about 900,000 from its September outlook. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada will publish its estimate of canola ending stocks later this month.
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There was a turnaround as well in the Chicago soy complex, with soyoil hit hard. However, European rapeseed and Malaysian palm oil were on the upside. Gains in global crude oil prices lent support to the vegetable oils.
The Canadian dollar nudged up at mid-afternoon Friday with the loonie at 73.62 U.S. cents compared to Thursday’s close of 73.55.
There were 53,751 contracts traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 51,615 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 39,200 contracts traded.
Prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne:
Price Change Canola Jan 660.00 dn 6.60 Mar 667.00 dn 8.20 May 674.20 dn 8.60 Jul 679.10 dn 9.20
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade turned lower on Friday after the United States Department of Agriculture published its December supply and demand estimates.
The USDA held 2023/24 domestic soybean ending stocks at 245 million bushels. Also, the USDA left its call for soybean production in Argentina at 48 million tonnes and trimmed Brazil’s output to 161 million.
The USDA announced a private sale of 136,000 tonnes of 2023/24 soybeans to China.
The Brazil state of Rio Grande do Sul reported its soybean planting reached 76 per cent complete. Production in the state is expected to jump 68 per cent from the previous year at 22.4 million tonnes.
CORN futures were lower on Friday, in a general downturn in Chicago following the USDA report.
The USDA cut domestic corn ending stocks for 2023/24 by 25 million bushels at 2.13 billion. The department left its corn production numbers for Argentina and Brazil at 55 million and 129 million tonnes respectively.
The department said there was a private sale of 165,000 tonnes of 2023/24 corn to unknown destinations.
Rio Grande do Sul said its corn planted was at 87 per cent done and production is projected to rise 53 per cent from last year at six million tonnes.
WHEAT futures were lower on Friday, as pressure from soybeans and corn overruled fresh supportive news.
The USDA defied market expectations and cut 25 million bushels from U.S. wheat ending stocks which were now at 659 million bushels. World wheat ending stocks were dropped to 258.2 million tonnes.
There was a flash sale of 110,000 tonnes of 2023/24 soft red winter wheat to China. This week China has purchased 1.12 million tonnes of the wheat from the U.S.
France reported its soft wheat crop was 89 per cent in the ground, seven points back of the five-year average. Excessive autumn rains has slowed planting and lowered crop ratings. This week the crop lost three points at 77 per cent good to excellent.
Egypt bought 420,000 tonnes of wheat from Russia.
