By Glen Hallick, MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, March 5 (MarketsFarm) – Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Futures canola contracts were lower on Thursday, after three days of gains as Chicago soyoil and European rapeseed weighed on values.
Malaysian palm oil was higher today and provided support, as did a lower Canadian dollar.
By mid-afternoon Thursday, the loonie slipped to 74.46 U.S. cents from Wednesday’s close of 74.67.
Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz commented today that the central bank’s half-point rate cut could see the economy slip over the next two fiscal quarters. Poloz made the cut to help bolster the Canadian economy in case fear towards the COVID-19 coronavirus severely erodes demand.
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By Glen Hallick, MarketsFarm Glacier Farm Media MarketsFarm – Intercontinental Exchange canola futures were stronger on Thursday, in gleaning support…
“There’s really no good news out there,” commented a Winnipeg-based trader.
There were 10,999 contracts traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 31,527 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 6,606 contracts traded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.
Price Change
Canola May 463.50 dn 3.40
Jul 471.60 dn 3.40
Nov 480.30 dn 3.60
Jan 486.30 dn 4.00
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) were weaker on Thursday, as a lack of Chinese buying has instilled negativity in the markets.
On Wednesday, United States Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue predicted China will start its record purchases of U.S. agricultural goods sometime this late spring/early summer. Under the terms of the Phase One trade agreement China is expected to purchase US$40 billion of farm products from the U.S. in the deal’s first year. That’s US$13 billion more than what China has purchased from the U.S. in any given year.
The secretary’s comments were followed by a statement from China’s Ministry of Agriculture on Thursday that said the country could meet its purchase requirements. However, the markets balked at both statements and turned lower.
Perdue commented earlier this week that the Trump administration is very likely to halt further financial aid to U.S. farmers, stemming from the U.S./China trade war. A total of about US$28 billion was paid out to farmers over the last two years.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued its weekly export sale report on Thursday. For the week ended Feb. 27, old crop/new crop soybean sales were 346,400 tonnes, which as well under the low end of trade expectations. Soymeal registered 316,700 tonnes in export sales, which was within market predictions and soyoil came in at 43,500 tonnes and exceeded guesses.
With the USDA’s next supply and demand report scheduled for March 10, market expectations are for the U.S. soybean carryover to increase slightly to 426 million bushels.
CORN futures were lower on Thursday, caught up in the market skepticism.
The Trump administration is widely expected to cut the number of ethanol refineries eligible for the Small Refinery Exemptions (SRE). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reportedly working on a compensation package for those refineries that would no longer qualify for the SRE. Conversely, the eligibility reductions would in turn support corn prices.
Total export sales of corn tallied 869,200 tonnes and were within market forecasts.
Trade predictions for Tuesday’s supply and demand report believe the corn carryover will slip by 4 million bushels to 1.89 billion bushels.
WHEAT futures were steady to lower on Thursday, with Chicago firm, but declines for Kansas City and Minneapolis.
Total export sales of wheat amounted to 570,400 tonnes, which was near the high end of market expectations.
The markets believe the global wheat carry over in the next USDA supply and demand report will increase slightly to 288.47 million tonnes.
