By Terryn Shiells and Marney Blunt, Commodity News Service Canada
WINNIPEG, June 26 – Most ICE Futures Canada canola contracts ended slightly higher on Thursday, though the July contract saw sharp gains as traders exited positions ahead of its expiry, analysts said.
Short covering ahead of Friday morning’s release of Statistics Canada’s latest acreage estimates was supportive, though traders didn’t want to push the market too high ahead of the report. Pre-report estimates call for Canadian canola area to be within a million acres on either side of their previous projection of 19.8 million acres.
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Slow farmer selling, along with steady commercial demand were also bullish for canola.
Further support came from the strong gains seen in Chicago soybean futures and worries about excessive moisture hurting some western Canadian canola crops.
However, the U.S. soybean crop is thought to be looking very good, which helped to limit the advances, as did profit taking at the highs of the day.
The upswing in the value of the Canadian dollar was also bearish, as it made canola less attractive to exporters and crushers.
Volume in the canola market was about 15,626 contracts on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday, when 31,400 contracts changed hands.
Milling wheat, durum and barley futures were untraded, though slight revisions to wheat prices were made after Thursday’s close.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade gained on Thursday due to U.S. exporters selling more than expected last week and concerns that the June 30 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will indicate that inventories at the beginning of the month were the lowest in 37 years, analysts say.
Soybeans futures on Thursday rose by 14.25 to 21.25 cents US per bushel.
U.S. exporters had sold 317,200 metric tonnes of soybeans for delivery on the year that ends on August 31, further decreasing already-low stocks of oilseeds, traders say. Stockpiles at the end of the 2013/14 season are expected to fall to the lowest amount in a decade at 135 million bushels.
Ideas that the June 30 Stocks and Acreage Report from the USDA will show inventories at the start of the month fell to 387 million bushels, the lowest level since 1977, has also pushed soybean prices higher. Meanwhile, increased demand from overseas buyers and processors has decreased domestic supplies, brokers say.
SOYOIL futures closed lower on Thursday.
SOYMEAL futures closed higher again on Thursday, keeping with the spread from soybean oil.
CORN futures in Chicago gained on Thursday based on signs of strong demand for U.S. inventories, brokers say.
Corn contracts were up 1.75 to 3.25 cents US per bushel on Thursday.
Last week exporters moved 321,000 metric tonnes of corn to overseas buyers, up from 109,031 tonnes the previous week, according to the government.
Areas in southern Minnesota are forecast to receive up to four inches of rain in the next five days which would be bullish.
Activity is mostly mixed this week for old crop as it awaits news from the USDA report.
WHEAT futures in Chicago were mixed on Thursday, as trouble with filling wheat sale commitments with early-harvested wheat in the U.S. and delays with the U.S. harvest in the east and the west were bullish factors, traders say.
July wheat futures gained 6.75 cents US per bushel while December futures fell 2.00 cent US per bushel.
Precipitation in the forecast may also cause for a drawn-out harvest period for many U.S. producers, analysts say.
Traders are predicting that the June 30 USDA report will see wheat acreage drop approximately 150,000 acres from the 12.009 million acres posted in the March Prospective Plantings Report.
• On June 26, Egypt’s finance minister said the country had provided guarantees worth $67 million for imports of wheat and cooking oil.
• A ministry statement said that letters of credit would allow the state-run General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) to secure 60,000 tonnes of wheat to boost the country’s strategic stocks.
ICE Futures Canada settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.
