By Dave Sims, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, April 24 (CNS Canada) – The ICE Futures Canada canola market finished mixed in choppy trading on Tuesday. Warmer weather across the Prairies and ideas the market was somewhat overbought weighed on the more deferred contracts while technical buying bolstered the front-month contracts.
Traders were exiting the front-month contract and positioning themselves ahead of Friday’s acreage estimates by Statistics Canada.
An analyst in Winnipeg pointed out canola has had trouble in the past several months rising above the C$540 per tonne mark, which once again has held true.
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“We’re now in this period of significant overhead resistance,” he said.
However, seasonal buying and some recent interest from China helped limit the losses.
Recent weakness in the Canadian dollar helped prop up values.
Around 18,907 canola contracts were traded on Tuesday, which compares with Monday when around 25,581 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 13,804 of the contracts traded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.
The soybean market chalked up minor gains on technical buying Tuesday.
Trade concerns between China and the United States continue to permeate the market. There is even talk China could be set to cancel some old crop purchases.
Planting in the U.S. is about two per cent complete.
Corn futures ended a few cents higher on reasonable demand Tuesday.
According to the USDA, planting progress in the U.S. is around five percent complete, which is well behind the five-year average of 14 percent complete.
The chance that farmers in the U.S. will switch out some corn acres to soybeans is looking more remote as weather conditions improve across the U.S. Corn Belt.
Chicago wheat futures finished strong on Tuesday after rainfall in the U.S. Southern Plains was much lighter than expected.
The vast majority of the snow in the U.S. Northern Plains is close to gone, which has eased concerns about a possible late start to planting.
According to the USDA, spring wheat planting in the U.S. is close to three percent complete, unchanged from the previous week.
