By Glen Hallick, MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, July 16 (MarketsFarm) – Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Futures canola contracts were higher on Thursday, due to strength in the soy complex on the Chicago Board of Trade, and in particular soyoil, which gained nearly a half cent.
A trader said that while product values climbed about $6, canola most often lags behind.
There was also support from Malaysian palm oil, but lower European rapeseed weighed on values.
The trader commented that canola crops have greatly improved over the last two to three weeks. In turn that’s spurred more farmer selling of what’s in the bin. The Canadian Grain Commission releases its grain statistics weekly later this afternoon.
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By mid-afternoon the Canadian dollar was lower at 73.67 U.S. cents, compared to Wednesday’s close of 73.89.
There were 13,871 contracts traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 14,940 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 5,718 contracts traded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.
Price Change
Canola Nov 479.40 up 1.40
Jan 486.50 up 1.20
Mar 492.00 up 1.00
May 495.90 up 0.80
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) were higher on Thursday, as export demand picked up.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported two large export sales of soybeans. One was for 522,000 tonnes to China with about a quarter to be delivered before the current marketing year ends on August 31. The second sale was for 351,000 tonnes to unknown destinations. The bulk of both sales are to be delivered in the 2020/21 marketing year.
The USDA reported export sales of soybeans, for the week ended July 9, at 313,000 tonnes for old crop, which was a decline of 67 per cent from the previous week. New crop soybeans came in at 767,600 tonnes. Export sales for old crop soymeal registered at 177,200 for an increase of 43 per cent from the previous week. New crop soymeal sales were at 27,800 tonnes. Soyoil sales totaled 5,700 tonnes.
Despite high tensions between China and the U.S., China announced on Thursday that it intends to stick to the provisions in the Phase One trade deal. The two countries have been at odds over pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, and over what defines international waters in the South China Sea. Also, the Trump administration has been very vocal in blaming China for the COVID-19 pandemic.
CORN futures were higher on Thursday, on rumours that China was in the market to purchase more U.S. corn, but that had yet to be confirmed.
Export sales of old crop corn came to 981,100 tonnes, which the USDA said was an improvement over the previous week. New crop sales hit 655,400 tonnes.
An ample carryover of U.S. corn from 2019/20 and projections of a sizeable corn crop have continued to weigh on values.
The harvest of the Brazil safrinha corn crop was reported at 35 per cent complete and was beginning to enter the export market.
Strategie Grains upped its estimate for the European Union corn crop by just over one per cent, projecting 66.6 million tonnes.
WHEAT futures fell by double digits across the board on Thursday due profit-taking.
As the U.S. Midwest is facing hot and dry weather for about the next two weeks, the Northern Plains was forecast to receive rain over the next several days.
Export sales of U.S. wheat amounted to 764,400 tonnes, which was a high for the marketing year that began June 1.
There have been rumours of China purchasing wheat from the U.S., but confirmation has yet to come forth.
Strategie Grains lowered its estimate of the E.U. soft wheat crop by almost 0.5 per cent at 130.3 million tonnes.
