By Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, April 2 (CNS Canada) – ICE Futures Canada canola contracts were stronger on Monday, as supportive chart signals and improving crush margins kept both processors and speculators on the buy side to start the week.
Advances in Chicago Board of Trade soyoil and weakness in the Canadian dollar were both supportive for crush margins. Recent activity also kept the technical bias pointed higher, which had speculators adding to their large net long positions, according to participants.
While losses in CBOT soybeans did put some pressure on values, canola lagged beans to the upside last week and had little reason to follow lower on Monday.
Read Also
Canadian Financial Close: Loonie, crude oil advance
The Canadian dollar reached its highest close in nine days on Wednesday, aided by higher crude oil prices. The loonie…
Uncertainty in the global financial markets kept some caution in the grains and oilseeds, amid a mounting trade dispute between China and the United States.
About 21,206 canola contracts traded on Monday, which compares with Thursday when 34,884 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 11,020 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were lower on Monday. After initially seeing some follow-through buying interest after last Thursday’s rally, soybeans ran into resistance and profit-taking came forward to weigh on values.
The threat that soybeans from the United States may be next on the list of goods facing retaliatory tariffs from China also weighed on values.
Weekly U.S. soybean export inspections of about half a million tonnes were down considerably from the previous week, with total-year-to-date export commitments running about six percent behind last year’s pace.
However, the smaller-than-expected soybean acres in the USDA’s Prospective Plantings report remained supportive.
CORN futures settled near unchanged, as the smaller-than-expected U.S. corn acreage forecast by the USDA last week remained supportive. Concerns that adverse weather may delay early seeding operations also underpinned the futures.
However, the China/U.S. trade dispute kept a lid on the corn market, with ethanol included in the latest tariffs.
WHEAT futures were mixed on the day, with gains in Kansas City hard red winter wheat, and losses in the Chicago and Minneapolis contracts.
The USDA’s acreage report was mixed for wheat. All-wheat and winter wheat acres were the second-lowest of the past century, while spring wheat area is forecast to be up considerably from last year.
Cold temperatures in the southern U.S. Plains kept the winter wheat markets somewhat supported on Monday.
