By Phil Franz-Warkentin and Dave Sims, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, Dec. 9 (CNS Canada) – ICE Futures Canada canola were down on Friday, seeing some follow-through selling after Thursday’s declines as the nearby technical bias has shifted lower.
Losses in Malaysian palm oil and Chicago Board of Trade soyoil futures contributed to the bearish tone in canola, according to participants. Recent strength in the Canadian dollar was also cutting into the crush margins.
However, those margins are still wide overall, and solid end-user demand from both exporters and domestic crushers provided underlying support, according to participants.
Read Also
Canadian Financial Close: Loonie, crude oil rise higher
Glacier FarmMedia – The Canadian dollar maintained its positive momentum on Monday, aided by gains in crude oil and despite a…
Gains in CBOT soybeans were also supportive.
The USDA’s monthly supply/demand report was deemed neutral to bearish as far as soybeans were concerned, with the government agency leaving its US stocks projections unchanged and raising the world estimates.
About 22,558 canola contracts were traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 31,281 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 12,080 of the contracts traded.
Milling wheat, durum, and barley were all untraded, although prices were revised after the close.
WHEAT futures in Chicago finished seven to eight cents per bushel higher on Friday as cold air continued to threaten winter wheat crops in the US Plains.
Traders were positioning themselves ahead of the weekend.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade climbed 10 to 11 cents per bushel as the USDA report was deemed neutral by traders. The USDA pegged the carryout at 480 million tonnes, which was unchanged from the November estimate. The world numbers were revised higher.
The March contract momentarily rose above the technically-important US$10.50 level before ultimately settling below it.
The USDA reported that 132,000 tonnes of soybeans were sold to unknown destinations.
SOYOIL futures finished lower on Friday.
SOYMEAL futures ended higher following soybeans.
CORN futures in Chicago settled five to six cents higher, as the USDA left its estimate for US production in 2016/17 unchanged at 386.75 million metric tonne.
Technical buying was a feature of the day.
On the other side, the USDA raised its estimate for world ending stocks to 222 million tonnes from the old estimate of 218 million tonnes.
END
