By Phil Franz-Warkentin
Glacier FarmMedia MarketsFarm – The ICE Futures canola market started Friday’s session sharply lower but managed to recover as the day progressed to settle with small gains.
While losses in Chicago soybean futures put some pressure on values, soyoil posted solid advances and Malaysian palm oil neared contract highs.
Talk of export demand coming forward at the lows was also supportive. However, weekly Canadian canola exports were soft at only 34,600 tonnes, according to Canadian Grain Commission data. That took the crop year-to-date total to 2.72 million tonnes, which compares with 4.11 million at the same point the previous year.
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Farmers were still thought to be sitting on large amounts of unpriced canola which was limiting the advances. A total of 7.80 million tonnes of canola was delivered into the commercial pipeline through 25 weeks of the marketing year, which compares with 9.59 million tonnes in 2022/23.
There were an estimated 37,230 contracts traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 34,614 contracts traded. Spreading accounted for 24,550 of the contracts traded.
CBOT soybeans, grains fall in pre-weekend positioning
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were weaker on Friday, as bearish technical signals and rising production estimates out of Argentina weighed on values. The advancing Brazilian harvest was also bearish despite some delays.
The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange in Argentia raised its estimate on the size of the country’s soybean crop by 2.5 million tonnes, pegging it at 52.5 million tonnes. Although the exchange also warned that yields will depend on future rains. The good-to-excellent rating for soybeans in Argentina fell to 44 per cent, from 55 per cent last week.
CORN was lower, dipping below nearby chart support as the market lacked any fresh supportive news.
The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange upped its corn production estimate for Argentina by 1.5 million tonnes, to 56.5 million. However, crop conditions in the country dipped slightly, losing five points in the good-to-excellent category at 41 per cent.
Forecasts calling for rains across northern Brazil will likely delay the soybean harvest and seeding of the second corn crop but will be good for development of the corn in the long run.
WHEAT was lower, taking back some of the gains from earlier in the week as traders booked profits ahead of the weekend.
Some stops were triggered on the way down, adding to the chart-based speculative selling in wheat.
While U.S. export business earlier in the week was solid, the country’s wheat remains expensive in the international market – which will continue to limit sales.
Relatively favoruable conditions for the U.S. winter wheat crop also weighed on values.
