By Phil Franz-Warkentin
Glacier FarmMedia MarketsFarm – The ICE Futures canola market was stronger on Thursday, underpinned by chart-based positioning and ideas losses earlier in the week were overdone.
Gains in Chicago soyoil provided spillover support, although soybeans were mixed. European rapeseed and Malaysian palm oil futures traded near unchanged, providing little direction.
Concerns over seeding delays across the Prairies after recent rains helped underpin the futures despite ideas that the moisture will be good for production in the long run. Saskatchewan’s canola crop was 17 per cent seeded as of this past Monday, according to a weekly report released earlier Thursday, which compares with 19 per cent done at the same point a year ago.
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There were an estimated 34,218 contracts traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 43,267 contracts traded. Spreading accounted for 19,818 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade moved to both sides of unchanged on Thursday, with spillover support from gains in soyoil countered by weakness in soymeal.
The United States Department of Agriculture reported weekly soybean export sales of 265,700 tonnes to move during the current marketing year, which was down by 38 per cent from the previous week. New crop business came in at only 25,200 tonnes.
Yesterday’s disappointing monthly crush data remained a bearish influence, while declining production estimates out of Brazil after recent flooding provided support.
CORN was lower, seeing some follow through selling after backing away from nearby highs earlier in the week.
U.S. exporters sold 742,200 tonnes of corn in the past week, which was down 17 per cent from the previous week and at the lower end of trade guesses. An additional 128,000 tonnes of new crop business were also reported.
Rains across parts of the Corn Belt may cause seeding delays, but farmers were thought to be making good progress around the precipitation.
Weather concerns in Russia remained supportive for WHEAT as traders continued to try and get a handle on the extent of the damaged caused by recent frosts. However, wheat ran into chart resistance and backed away from early gains to end lower.
Weekly U.S. wheat export sales came in at about 380,000 tonnes of old and new crop business combined.
A crop tour of U.S. hard red wheat growing regions was generally showing yields in line with the five-year average, and well above last year’s drought-stricken crop.
