By Phil Franz-Warkentin and Brandon Logan, Commodity News Service Canada
Jan. 31, 2014
Winnipeg – ICE Futures Canada canola contracts settled higher on Friday, underpinned by gains in CBOT soyoil and by ideas that canola remains cheap compared to most other oilseeds.
Oversold price sentiment and the continued weakness in the Canadian dollar were also supportive, according to participants, although the currency did manage to see a bit of a recovery ahead of the weekend.
Canada’s ongoing logistics issues, large South American soybean crop prospects, and the generally bearish chart signals for canola did temper the upside potential and profit-taking at the highs came forward to temper the gains, said traders.
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About 26,127 canola contracts were traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 23,114 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 20,384 of the contracts traded.
Milling wheat, durum and barley futures were untraded, after seeing some price revisions following Thursday’s close.
US Grain And Oilseed Review
SOYBEAN futures closed six to seven US cents per bushel higher on Friday, underpinned by easing concerns about China cancelling US soybean shipments, industry watchers said.
Continued strong export demand for US soybeans added to the bullish tone, as did spillover from the gains seen the soyoil market, brokers said.
However, harvest pressure from Brazil limited any further gains, as the South American country is expected to produce a record large soybean crop.
SOYOIL futures were 55 to 57 points stronger on Friday, underpinned by good demand for the US product, analysts said.
SOYMEAL futures were US$0.50 to US$0.90 higher on Friday, as trade was choppy for most of the session, brokers said.
CORN futures were close to unchanged on Friday, as trading was relatively quiet ahead of the weekend, brokers said.
Some strength came from extremely strong US export sales, traders said.
However, favourable conditions for the development of Argentina’s corn crop limited any further gains.
CBOT WHEAT, MGEX SPRING WHEAT and KCBT RED WHEAT futures were two to six US cents per bushel higher on Friday, underpinned by ideas that the market is oversold after it fell to a three-and-a-half year low during the week, industry watchers said.
Stronger-than-expected weekly US export sales also gave prices a boost.
However, continued concerns of large global carryover stocks limited any further gains.
Daily World Wheat News
* According to the International Grains Council, world wheat production for 2013/14 is pegged at 707 million metric tonnes, up from 655.2 million metric tonnes in 2012/13.
* Cold conditions in Russia have sparked concerns about possible damage to some of the country’s winter wheat crop.
* According to reports, Germany shipped 250,000 tonnes of wheat to Iran in January.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.
