By Phil Franz-Warkentin
Glacier FarmMedia MarketsFarm – ICE Futures canola market managed to settle higher for the second session in a row on Friday, continuing to recover off recently-hit contract lows as the market found independent strength despite losses in the Chicago soy complex.
Updated production and stocks data from the United States Department of Agriculture was bearish for soybeans, as yields, production and ending stocks all beat average trade guesses.\ While canola also moved lower immediately following the U.S. data, the Canadian oilseed uncovered support and moved higher by the close.
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End user bargain hunting and speculative positioning contributed to the gains amid ideas recent losses were overdone. Solid weekly export demand was also supportive.
There were an estimated 42,484 contracts traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 34,477 contracts traded. Spreading accounted for 27,128 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade fell sharply lower on Friday, seeing a bearish reaction to updated supply/demand estimates from the United States Department of Agriculture.
Average U.S. soybean yields were raised to 50.6 bushels per acre by the USDA, beating expectations that yields would hold at 49.9 bushels per acre and taking production to 4.165 billion bushels.
A four million tonne downward revision to Brazil’s soybean production, now at 157.0 million tonnes, was slightly supportive. However, Argentina’s crop was raised to 50.0 million tonnes, which would be double last year’s crop – leaving large South American supplies.
CORN fell to fresh contract lows on Friday, hitting its softest levels in three years as the USDA surprisingly raised average U.S. corn yields to a record 177.3 bushels per acre.
Total U.S. corn production was up by 108 million from the December forecast, at 15.342 billion bushels, with projected ending stocks of 2.16 billion bushels well above last year’s carryout.
WHEAT was lower, although the data was less bearish as far as wheat was concerned.
U.S. winter wheat seedings were pegged at 34.425 million acres, which was down by about 2.3 million on the year and below average trade guesses.
World wheat ending stocks were raised to 260 million tonnes, from 258 million in December.
