By Glen Hallick, MarketsFarm
Glacier Farm Media MarketsFarm – Intercontinental Exchange canola futures fell back on Thursday, due to pressure from weakness in the Chicago soy complex.
While losses in European rapeseed added to the declines in canola, the Malaysian palm oil market remained closed for a holiday. After pushing upward, global crude oil prices were pulling lower and weighing on vegetable oil values.
Concerns over the South American soybean crop kept a lid on further losses in ICE canola and Chicago soy, according to a trader. The Brazil soybean harvest has already fallen back significantly while hot and dry weather in Argentina is likely to erode soybean yields.
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The trader also commented canola had yet to find its low, but prices were beginning to level off.
The Canadian dollar was a pinch higher at mid-afternoon Thursday with the loonie at 74.69 U.S. cents compared to Wednesday’s close of 74.64.
There were 43,762 contracts traded on Thursday, compared to Wednesday when 60,448 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 32,070 contracts traded.
Prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne:
Price Change Canola Mar 601.20 dn 9.20 May 608.40 dn 9.60 Jul 612.70 dn 9.60 Nov 612.50 dn 10.20
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade fell hard on Thursday, following a week of poor export sales.
The United States Department of Agriculture issued its export sales report and for the week ended Jan. 25, old crop soybean sales hit a marketing year low of 164,500 tonnes, and far below the low end of market guesses. New crop sales came to 1,500 tonnes. Soymeal sales tallied 494,200 tonnes of old crop and 700 of new crop. Soyoil sales were 1,000 tonnes of old crop.
The USDA announced a private sale for 206,834 tonnes of old crop soybeans to Mexico.
The department’s fats and oils report said 204 million bushels of soybeans were crushed in December. That’s lower than the average trade guess of 206 million bushels, however it’s higher than the December 2022 crush of 187 million bushels. Crude soyoil came to 2.38 billion pounds, eight per cent more than the previous December.
StoneX reduced its call for the ongoing Brazil soybean harvest by 1.6 per cent at 150.35 million tonnes.
CORN futures were slightly lower on Thursday, following decent sales.
U.S corn export sales were nearly 1.21 million tonnes of old crop plus 144,500 of new crop, and both were within trade expectations.
The USDA grain crushing report said 529 million bushels of corn were consumed for alcohol and other uses in December, and up 11 per cent from a year ago. The average trade guess was 474.4 million bushels.
The USDA reported the size of the country’s total cattle herd dropped to its lowest level since 1951 at 87.2 million head. Of that were 28.2 million beef cattle, the fewest since 1961.
StoneX bumped up its projection for Brazil’s first corn harvest by 0.4 per cent at 25.9 million tonnes and trimmed its outlook for the second crop by 0.1 per cent at 96.4 million tonnes.
WHEAT futures were mixed on Thursday, with slightly losses for Kansas City while Chicago and Minneapolis were higher.
Export sales of U.S. wheat were 322,500 tonnes of old crop and 15,500 tonnes of new crop, and within trade guesses.
The USDA’s quarterly flouring milling report found 226 million bushels of wheat were ground during the fourth quarter of 2023, down one per cent from the previous Q4. Durum for flour and semolina came to 17 million bushels, three per cent more than a year ago.
Farmer protests continued throughout much of the European Union, with demonstrators throwing eggs and rocks at the EU Parliament buildings, as well setting off fireworks and starting fires.
