By Phil Franz-Warkentin, MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, Feb. 4 (MarketsFarm) – The ICE Futures canola market was weaker on Friday as speculators booked profits ahead of the weekend. While gains in Chicago Board of Trade soyoil provided some support, soyoil was down on the day.
Ideas canola is looking overpriced at current levels added to the selling pressure, as end user buying interest remains on the sidelines for the time being.
Weakness in the Canadian dollar provided some underlying support. The tight old crop supply situation also continued to underpin the market.
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About 16,233 canola contracts traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 17,934 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 9,506 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade experienced some choppy activity on Friday, but managed to settle with solid gains as strength in soymeal and losses in soyoil pulled at the market.
The United States Department of Agriculture announced private export sales of 295,000 tonnes of soybeans to unknown destinations this morning, with the majority to be delivered during the current marketing year.
Production concerns out of South America remained supportive, as a number of forecasters have lowered their crop estimates for Brazil and Argentina over the past week.
China has been out of the market over the past week due to the Lunar New Year holiday, but there are ideas they could be back as large buyers of U.S. beans given the questions over South American production.
CORN was firmer on Friday, with chart-based positioning ahead of the weekend a feature.
The USDA releases its monthly supply/demand report on Feb. 9, and general expectations are for reductions in both US and world stocks projections.
WHEAT was stronger, posting double digit gains as the losses earlier in the week encouraged some fresh buying interest.
Ongoing uncertainty over the tensions between Russia and Ukraine kept some caution in the wheat market.
However, beneficial moisture hitting dry U.S. winter wheat growing areas tempered the upside to some extent.
