By Dave Sims and Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, October 18 – THE ICE Futures Canada canola market finished higher Tuesday on ideas that snow and cold weather across Western Canada may prevent farmers from harvesting a large portion of the crop still on the field.
Speculative buying was a feature as large funds continued to move out of the November contract and into January, according to a trader.
However, losses in the vegetable oil market and Chicago Board of Trade soybeans limited the gains.
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The front-month November contract ran into hard resistance at the C$500 per tonne level and was forced to settle below it.
The Canadian dollar was higher relative to its US counterpart, which made canola less enticing on the international stage.
Around 38,421 canola contracts were traded on Tuesday, which compares with Monday when around 43,496 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for about 28,988 of the contracts traded.
Milling wheat, barley and durum were untraded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were down by three to six cents per bushel on Tuesday, retreating from earlier gains.
Solid export demand initially gave soybeans a boost, with the USDA reporting sales of 706,500 tonnes of US beans to China.
However, the market ran into resistance at the highs, and turned lower as the day progressed.
The US soybean harvest was 62 per cent complete as of this past Sunday, according to the latest weekly USDA report. Favourable weather for soybean planting in South America was also somewhat bearish.
SOYOIL futures were down on Tuesday, as profit-taking came forward at the nearby highs.
SOYMEAL futures were narrowly mixed on Tuesday, with spreading against soyoil providing some support.
CORN futures in Chicago held near unchanged on Tuesday, although the bias was to the downside at the close.
The US corn harvest was 46 per cent complete as of this past Sunday, which was slightly behind expectations and somewhat supportive. However, the good-to-excellent ratings of the crop improved by one point, to 74 per cent, which pressured values on the other side.
WHEAT futures in Chicago were down by one to four cents per bushel on Tuesday, retreating from recent gains.
The US winter wheat crop was 72 per cent seeded as of this past Sunday, which was in line with the five-year average. Emergence, at 47 per cent, compares with the five-year average of 45 per cent.
– Japan is tendering to purchase 132,000 tonnes of milling quality wheat.
