By Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, Sept. 7 (CNS Canada) – ICE Futures Canada canola contracts were lower on Thursday, as seasonal harvest pressure weighed on prices.
Harvest operations are in full swing across most of the Prairies, and yield reports are generally beating earlier expectations despite production issues in some regions.
The weekly Saskatchewan crop report showed the canola harvest in the province at 26 per cent complete, with an additional 50 per cent swathed or ready to straight-cut.
With more newly harvested supplies becoming available every day, end users have little reason to bid up the market and were only buying on a scale down basis, according to participants.
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The strong Canadian dollar was also bearish for canola, as the currency traded well above 82 US cents.
About 24,770 canola contracts traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 24,053 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 14,540 of the contracts traded.
Milling wheat, durum, and barley were all untraded.
Soybean futures were down one to two cents per bushel at Thursday’s close, after posting gains for most of the session.
Speculative short covering accounted for some early strength, as supportive chart signals encouraged some buying. Early harvest reports coming in below expectations in some parts of the Midwest also helped underpin the futures.
However, the bulk of the US harvest is still to come, and the looming seasonal pressure kept a lid on the upside.
Corn moved five to six cents per bushel lower on Thursday, seeing some profit-taking after hitting its best levels in two weeks on Wednesday.
However, there were still enough weather concerns ahead of the harvest to provide some underlying support. Parts of the Midwest are reportedly on the dry side, while Hurricane Irma threatens to bring heavy rains to southern corn crops.
US wheat futures ended mixed, with losses in the Chicago and Kansas City winter wheat contracts and gains in Minneapolis spring wheat.
Follow-through buying interest after yesterday’s rally accounted for some of the strength in Minneapolis wheat. The US spring wheat harvest is also nearing completion, taking some of the seasonal selling pressure out of the market.
However, ample world wheat supplies remained bearish for the wheat futures overall.
