By Phil Franz-Warkentin
Glacier FarmMedia MarketsFarm – The ICE Futures canola market recovered from early losses to post solid gains on Monday, as strength in outside markets provided spillover support.
Crude oil climbed to its highest levels of the past month, with Chicago soyoil and Malaysian palm oil also higher on the day.
March canola tested its 20-day moving average, which brought in some additional speculative buying and contributed to the gains. Fund traders were holding a record large short position in canola as of Jan. 16, and could be looking to book profits and buy back some of those shorts.
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ICE canola posting solid gains at midday Tuesday
Glacier FarmMedia — The ICE Futures canola market was stronger at midday Tuesday, taking back Monday’s losses. Gains in Chicago…
There were an estimated 40,207 contracts traded on Monday, which compares with Friday when 41,083 contracts traded. Spreading accounted for 26,370 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade moved higher on Monday, as gains in crude oil sparked by a Ukrainian attack on a Russian fuel terminal spilled into the vegetable oil markets. Soyoil was up sharply on the day, which pulled beans up as well.
The Brazilian soybean harvest is in its early stages at six per cent complete, according to reports out of the country, with planting of the country’s second corn crop also underway.
Adverse weather earlier in the growing season likely cut into production prospects in Brazil, although recent rains have improved the outlook and opinions on the size the soybean crop are wide ranging.
Weekly United States inspections data showed 1.16 million tonnes of soybean exports during the past week, which was down slightly from the previous week. Year-to-date U.S. soybean exports of 26.75 million tonnes were down by 22 per cent on the year.
CORN futures held near unchanged, lacking any clear direction on Monday.
An estimated 713,000 tonnes of U.S. corn were shipped during the past week, which was down by about 25 per cent from the previous week. However, total corn exports during the marketing year to date of 14.7 million tonnes were about 30 per cent ahead of last year’s pace.
Brazil’s summer corn harvest was about eight per cent complete, according to reports out of the country, with about five per cent of the next crop in the ground.
WHEAT was mixed, with gains in Minneapolis spring wheat and Chicago soft wheat, but losses in Kansas City hard red winter wheat.
Weekly U.S. wheat export inspections of 314,500 tonnes were well above what moved the previous week, with China the top destination. However, year-to-date wheat shipments of 10.7 million tonnes were down by about two million from the same time the previous year.
