CNS Canada –– ICE Futures Canada canola contracts were up and down during the week ended Wednesday, but managed to post gains overall as a weaker Canadian dollar and spillover from the advances in CBOT soybeans provided support.
Whether strength in canola will continue remains to be seen.
“All of these gyrations of late (in canola) have to be viewed within the broader context of the macroeconomic environment,” said Mike Jubinville of ProFarmer Canada in Winnipeg.
Large swings in financial and energy markets are bringing more speculative money to grains and oilseeds, he noted.
Read Also
Feed Grains Weekly: Price likely to keep stepping back
As the harvest in southern Alberta presses on, a broker said that is one of the factors pulling feed prices lower in the region. Darcy Haley, vice-president of Ag Value Brokers in Lethbridge, added that lower cattle numbers in feedlots, plentiful amounts of grass for cattle to graze and a lacklustre export market also weighed on feed prices.
“It’s just a whole mess of money flow sloshing back and forth between various places,” he said, and that confusion is working its way into agricultural markets as well.
From a fundamental standpoint, the record-large U.S. soybean crop overhanging the market does remain bearish for canola. Canadian harvest pressure is also working its way into the futures.
However, from a technical standpoint, canola has some room to the upside. Jubinville noted fund traders are still holding large short positions, which could lead to a larger short-covering bounce if some upside technical levels are breached.
For the November contract, he placed resistance at around $415-$420 per tonne.
— Phil Franz-Warkentin writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Winnipeg company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.
