By Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
WINNIPEG, Aug. 24 (CNS Canada) – ICE Futures Canada canola contracts were narrowly mixed at midday Thursday, retreating from earlier gains.
Follow-through buying interest after Wednesday’s advances provided early support for canola, as a move by the US to impose countervailing duties on biodiesel from Indonesia and Argentina remained supportive for the North American vegetable oil markets. However, Chicago Board of Trade soyoil turned lower after running into resistance, and canola also found itself under pressure.
Speculative selling contributed to the generally softer tone, as canola ran into resistance to the upside.
Statistics Canada releases its first official survey-based production estimates of the year on August 31, and positioning ahead of the report accounted for some of the activity. After growing 18.4 million tonnes in 2016, average trade guesses are forecasting a similar crop for 2017 but individual market opinions vary widely.
About 10,000 canola contracts had traded as of 10:39 CDT.
Milling wheat, durum, and barley futures were all untraded and unchanged.
