By Phil Franz-Warkentin, MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, Nov. 2 (MarketsFarm) – The ICE Futures canola market was stronger on Thursday, bouncing off nearby lows as speculative fund positioning provided support.
Speculators holding a massive net short position in canola were on the buy side of the market on Thursday, covering some of those bearish bets and booking profits. Gains in Chicago soybeans and soyoil also provided spillover support.
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However, canola ran into resistance to the upside and settled well off its highs for the day with the long-term downtrend still intact.
Strength in the Canadian dollar, which was up by roughly half of a cent relative to its United States counterpart, also weighed on values.
There were an estimated 41,164 contracts traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 28,557 contracts traded. Spreading accounted for 22,538 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were underpinned by chart-based positioning on Thursday, testing upside resistance as the market reacted to solid export demand.
Weekly United States soybean export sales of just over a million tonnes were down on the week, but in line with pre-report expectations. Crop-year-to-date shipments were in line with the year ago level at just over 9.8 million tonnes.
Monthly U.S. crush data showed 174.75 million bushels of soybeans were processed in the country in September, which was up from the previous month and 4.3 per cent above what was crushed last September. However, soyoil stockpiles tightened to 1.6 billion pounds, from 1.77 billion in August and 1.99 billion a year ago.
CORN futures moved lower as export demand failed to live up to expectations.
Weekly U.S. corn export sales at 748,000 tonnes were below pre-report expectations and well off the week ago level.
The U.S. used 430 million bushels of corn for ethanol production in September, which was at the higher end of trade expectations.
WHEAT was steady to higher, with weakness in the U.S. dollar index thought to be encouraging more export interest.
The USDA reported weekly U.S. wheat export sales at 275,600 tonnes, which was the lowest level in five weeks and below market expectations.
However, U.S. wheat prices were thought to be looking more competitive in the global market, with recent weakness in the U.S. dollar also likely to be bringing in more buying interest going forward.
