By Phil Franz-Warkentin, MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, Feb. 16 (MarketsFarm) – The ICE Futures canola market held onto small gains on Thursday, with the largest advances in the new crop months.
Chicago soyoil, European rapeseed and Malaysian palm oil futures were all higher on the day, lending support to canola.
Weakness in the Canadian dollar was also supportive, helping crush margins remain historically wide.
However, chart-based positioning tempered the upside, with intermonth-spreading weighing on the nearby March contract as traders adjust positions ahead of the month-end.
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About 44,049 canola contracts traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 35,709 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 33,692 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were slightly higher on Thursday, underpinned by solid export demand. A rally in soyoil added to the gains, although meal held closer to unchanged.
Weekly United States export sales included half a million tonnes of old crop soybean business and an additional 260,000 tonnes of new crop sales. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also announced additional flash sales this morning of 128,000 tonnes to unknown destinations.
Crush data released Wednesday showed 179 million bushels of soybeans crushed in the U.S. in January, which was below average trade guesses.
Uncertain production prospects out of Argentina remained a feature in the background of the bean market given the ongoing dryness there, although most trade participants expect a record-large Brazilian crop will more than make up for losses in Argentina.
CORN finished narrowly mixed, with chart-based positioning a feature.
Weekly U.S. corn export sales included just over a million tonnes of old crop business and an additional 100,000 tonnes of new crop which was in line with expectations.
WHEAT was mixed, with losses in Chicago soft wheat and gains in the hard red wheats.
Weekly U.S. wheat export sales of about 210,000 tones were at the lower end of trade expectations, but up from the previous week.
Uncertainty over Black Sea grain movement remained a supportive feature in the background, with the agreement allowing Ukrainian grain movement through the Black Sea set to expire in March.
Meanwhile, Russian wheat exports remain brisk. SovEcon raised their wheat export forecast for the year to 44.2 million tonnes, which compares with the USDA’s estimate for the country of 43 million.
