By Dave Sims, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, May 10 (CNS Canada) – The ICE Futures Canada canola market ended higher on Thursday, as a new report from the USDA indicated ending stocks of U.S. soybeans would be smaller than expected.
Many analysts had predicted ending stocks would rise slightly, but the agency pegged them at 415 million bushels in 2018/19. That compares to expectations of 530 million bushels in 2017/18.
Meanwhile, slow farmer selling and dry conditions in parts of the eastern Prairies were bullish for futures.
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However, strength in the Canadian dollar was bearish for canola, as it made the commodity less attractive on the international market.
The November contract ran into technical resistance at the C$520 per tonne mark.
Around 9,447 canola contracts were traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when around 16,549 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 2,738 of the contracts traded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.
Soybean futures chalked up modest gains on Thursday after the United States Department of Agriculture lowered its estimate for domestic ending stocks of new crop and old crop soybeans.
Some analysts had predicted that soybean stocks for the 2018/19 crop would actually increase, but the agency shocked everyone by pegging the figure at 415 million bushels. That compares to 530 million a year earlier.
Corn futures finished slightly lower on Thursday.
The USDA pegged world corn stocks at 159.2 million tonnes for the 2018/19 crop year. That compares to 191.9 million in 2017/18.
The agency pegged China’s domestic corn stocks for 2018/19 at 60.5 million tonnes, which compares to 80 million tonnes the previous year.
Chicago wheat ended weaker as the USDA estimated that ending stocks of U.S. old crop would rise slightly to 1.07 billion bushels.
The agency predicted that wheat production would rise in the U.S. despite drought in the U.S. Southern Plains. The agency pegged all wheat production at 1.82 billion bushels, which was up five percent from the previous year.
On the other side, the USDA said hard red winter wheat could like suffer lower yields in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas due to the dry conditions.
