By Phil Franz-Warkentin
Glacier FarmMedia MarketsFarm – The ICE Futures canola market held onto small gains on Monday, with chart-based positioning a feature amid ideas recent losses were overdone.
Advances in Chicago soybeans accounted for some of the spillover buying interest in canola, with end-user bargain hunting also supportive.
However, losses in soyoil and increased farmer selling on any attempts at moving higher tempered the advances. Speculators continue to hold a large net short position in canola, and remained content to watch their profits grow as most major technical indicators remain pointed lower.
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There were an estimated 62,940 contracts traded on Monday, which compares with Friday when 61,169 contracts traded. Spreading was a feature, accounting for 43,736 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were stronger on Monday, seeing a modest correction off nearby lows to start the week.
Weekly United States export inspections showed 1.3 million tonnes of soybeans were shipped out of the country in the week ended Feb. 8, which was down from 1.75 million tonnes the previous week. Year-to-date exports were running 22.7 per cent off last year’s pace.
Farmers in Brazil were said to be making good harvest progress, with nearly a quarter of the soybean crop off the fields. However, anecdotal reports point to disappointing yields, with many private analysts lowering their production estimates.
In Argentina, condition ratings declined slightly over the past week, although at 31 per cent good-to-excellent that still compares favourably with last year at the same time when only 17 per cent of the crop hit the higher quality levels.
CORN touched fresh contract lows in overnight activity but managed to uncover some support and turned higher.
Weekly U.S. corn export inspections of 880,000 tonnes were up on the week, with the year-to-date total corn exports of 17.2 million tonnes running 31 per cent ahead of last year’s pace.
Argentina’s corn crop was estimated at 31 per cent good-to-excellent by the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange, which was down by four points on the week, but still above the 20 per cent reading at this time last year.
WHEAT was mixed, with the bias lower in most contracts at the close.
Weekly U.S. wheat export inspections came in at about 407,000 tonnes, which was up from 295,000 tonnes the previous week. However, total wheat exports to date of 11.7 million tonnes were still running about 2.6 million tonnes behind the year ago pace.
