By Dave Sims and Jade Markus, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, May 4 – The ICE Futures Canada canola market finished mixed in choppy trading on Thursday.
The nearby July contract found support by traders positioning themselves ahead of tomorrow’s Statistics Canada stocks report while the more-deferred values were weighed down by losses in the US soy complex.
Spreads were a feature of today’s session, according to a trader in Winnipeg.
“July/November has been an active spread,” he said. “Another signal that old crop is gaining on new crop.”
Read Also
Canadian Financial Close: Loonie, crude oil advance
The Canadian dollar reached its highest close in nine days on Wednesday, aided by higher crude oil prices. The loonie…
Large soybean exports from South America and growing oilseed acreage across North America helped to undermine prices.
Losses in Malaysian palm oil also dragged on values.
However, the trader added farmers in Alberta were having more trouble than their eastern counterparts getting unharvested crops off the field, due to last month’s wet weather.
Around 14,167 canola contracts were traded on Thursday, which
compares with Wednesday when around 14,377 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for about 4,176 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 closed one to five cents per bushel weaker on Thursday, tracking losses in the corn and wheat markets.
Industry projections for higher production in both Brazil and Argentina added to the downside.
However, weekly export sales reported by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) were at the high end of analyst-expectations, which limited the oilseed’s downside.
SOYOIL prices closed weaker on Thursday.
SOYMEAL closed lower on Thursday.
CORN futures were about eight cents per bushel weaker on Thursday.
Spill-over pressure from wheat was one feature, while export sales reported by the USDA were at the low-end of analyst-expectations.
Ideas that ethanol prices will soften added to the grain’s downside.
WHEAT closed 14 to 17 cents per bushel lower on Thursday, pressured by reports from an ongoing US crop tour.
Tour participants say yield prospects in Kansas are still above-average, according to reports. That news follows a weather based rally earlier in the week.
Profit taking was also a feature.
