By Dave Sims and Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, Feb 27 – THE ICE Futures Canada canola market suffered modest losses Monday, as weakness in vegetable oil markets pointed the way downward.
Losses in Chicago Board of Trade soybeans were also bearish for the market.
A Winnipeg-based analyst pegs major floor-support for the May contract at the C$505 per tonne level.
“If it breaks below that it could spark a selloff of long positions by speculators,” he said.
Crush margins remain under pressure.
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On the other side, the dominant May contract received some technical support at the 200-day moving average of C$513 per tonne, according to the analyst.
Global demand for oilseeds helped prop up prices.
Around 25,910 canola contracts were traded on Monday, which compares with Friday when around 24,812 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for about 17,700 of the contracts traded.
Milling wheat, barley and durum were all untraded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were steady to down two cents per bushel on Monday, with signs of declining export demand behind some of the weakness.
The USDA reported weekly US soybean export inspections of 705,000 tonnes, which compares with inspections of over a million tonnes the previous week.
Declining crush margins in China were also expected to cut into that country’s demand, according to a report from the China National Grain and Oils Information Centre.
The good South American production prospects weighed on values as well. While some areas of Brazil were receiving untimely rainfall, moisture in dry areas of Argentina was welcomed.
SOYOIL futures settled near unchanged on Monday.
SOYMEAL futures held within a narrow range on Monday, although the bias was lower in the most active nearby months.
CORN futures in Chicago were down by one to four cents per bushel on Monday, as month-end positioning and spillover from the losses in wheat weighed on values.
Good South American crop prospects put some further pressure on prices.
However, solid weekly US corn export inspections of 1.4 million tonnes provided some support. Expectations for a sizeable reduction in US corn acres this spring remained supportive as well.
WHEAT futures in Chicago were down by seven to 12 cents per bushel on Monday, as large world supplies weighed on prices.
Argentina is forecast to harvest 18.3 million tonnes of wheat in 2016/17, according to the country’s agriculture minister. That would be a new record and 63 per cent above the 2015/16 level.
Weekly US wheat export inspections of 538,000 tonnes were down slightly from the previous week.
