ICE canola midday: Prices down on weaker vegetable oils

By Glen Hallick, MarketsFarm

WINNIPEG, Feb. 14 (MarketsFarm) – ICE Futures canola contracts were lower on Friday, as Chicago soyoil was flat while European rapeseed and Malaysian palm oil were down.

A Winnipeg-based trader said the spreads have been very active this week as traders moved out of the March contract.

While that trend continued on Friday, the trader noted there was profit-taking ahead of the long weekend, as there are holidays in the United States and Canada on Monday.

Visible stocks were up as farmer selling was at 380,000 tonnes this week.

The trader said the domestic crush “is clipping along” as exports continued to slip and that would eventually lead to larger stocks.

Should demonstrations across Canada impeding rail traffic continue, he warned that would lead to a major bottleneck in the long term.

“You just don’t start trains up and everything catches up in a day or two,” the trader commented.

So far today, the Canadian dollar was virtually unchanged at 75.47 U.S. cents.

Approximately 23,800 canola contracts were traded as of 10:56 CST.

Prices in Canadian dollars per metric tonne at 10:56 CST:

Price Change
Canola Mar 460.20 dn 3.60
May 469.20 dn 3.40
Jul 475.30 dn 3.40
Nov 483.50 dn 2.50