By Dave Sims, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, April 12 (CNS Canada) – The ICE Futures Canada canola market ended mixed in narrow trading on Thursday, as values pushed and pulled in technical trade after losses earlier in the week.
Weakness in the Canadian dollar and advances in the U.S. soy complex lent support to the market.
Cold temperatures across Western Canada are starting to create ideas that some canola acres could be switched out this year due to the expected late start.
“If we get another dump of snow that could really delay seeding,” said a trader in Winnipeg.
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Much of today’s activity was generated by spread-trading as investors continued to exit the front month.
Crush margins gained a few dollars today after recently hitting some of their lowest levels all season.
Around 30,039 canola contracts were traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when around 26,329 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 20,070 of the contracts traded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.
The soybean market posted gains on Thursday as the market continued to climb on estimates calling for a smaller than expected soybean crop in Argentina.
Weekly export sales in the United States were slightly higher than expected with 1.5 million tonnes of soybeans sold.
On the other side, the latest estimate for Brazil’s soybean crop has risen to 117.4 million tonnes, which limited the upside.
Corn ended close to unchanged on Thursday. The corn market was caught between short-term technical selling and some speculative buying.
Cold weather in the U.S. Plains continues to underpin the market while disappointing weekly export sales limited the upside.
Chicago wheat futures in Chicago declined with technical selling.
Export sales for the week were just 121,000, which was much lower than estimates which called for up to 350,000 tonnes to be sold.
Snow is forecast to fall in parts of South Dakota, Nebraska and Minnesota, which was bullish.
