By Dave Sims, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, May 9 (CNS Canada) – The ICE Futures Canada canola market ended mixed on Wednesday. The front-month July contract was boosted by gains in soyoil while the more deferred contracts were pressured by strength in the Canadian dollar.
Traders were positioning themselves ahead of North American stocks data that will be released over the next two days. It starts with the release of USDA stocks and production numbers tomorrow and Canadian stocks data on Friday.
Spring seeding is in full bloom and most farmers are too busy to do much selling, which lifted the market. As well, some parts of Alberta are currently too wet to seed.
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Canola continues to chop around in its recently-established range and the funds are still sitting long, according to a trader.
However, strength in the Canadian dollar was bearish for canola and technical selling was a feature.
Around 16,549 canola contracts were traded on Wednesday, which compares with Tuesday when around 9,593 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 7,620 of the contracts traded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.
The soybean market dipped on Wednesday as traders were positioning themselves ahead of Thursday’s USDA stocks and production estimates.
There are ideas the agency will hike its production estimate for Brazil’s soybean crop to 116.3 million tonnes. At the same time, the USDA could lower its estimate for the U.S. old crop carryout to 546 million bushels, which would be down four million bushels from the last estimate.
The collision that occurred between a ship and a major pier in Rosario, Argentina a few weeks ago, could be more serious than initially though. There are ideas the pier could be unusable for the next 18 months. That particular section of the harbor was responsible for delivering 22 per cent of the country’s exports last year, according to a report from CHS Hedging.
Corn futures finished little changed on Wednesday.
Most analysts expected U.S. ending stocks to be around around the 2.18 billion bushel mark, which would be slightly bearish for prices.
However, President Trump announced new rules on ethanol today, which lent support to corn futures. The deal could help corn growers by allowing the sale of high-ethanol blended gasoline all year. Currently, blends higher than 10 per cent are restricted due to concerns the higher-content gas contributes to smog on hot days.
Chicago wheat chalked up losses in speculative selling.
Forecasts calling for rain in large parts of the U.S. Plains were bearish for prices.
As well, most analysts expect tomorrow’s all-wheat production figure to come in at 1.77 billion bushels for the U.S. That would be 33 million bushels more than last year.
