By Glen Hallick, MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, Feb. 13 (MarketsFarm) – Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Futures canola contracts finished either side of steady on Thursday, lacking direction after bouncing back from losses earlier in the session.
Declines in Chicago soyoil weighed on values, but gains in European rapeseed provided support.
Canadian Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller and British Columbia Premier John Horgan announced on Thursday that they will meet with Indigenous groups who have been impeding rail traffic. Hopes are to resolve issues pertaining to the ongoing demonstrations across Canada. The demonstrations have been in support of the Wet’suwet’en heredity chiefs, who are opposed to the new Coastal GasLink pipeline crossing Wet’suwet’en traditional territory in B.C.
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By Glen Hallick, MarketsFarm Glacier Farm Media MarketsFarm – Intercontinental Exchange canola futures finished lower in choppy trading on Friday,…
By mid-afternoon Thursday, the Canadian dollar was steady at 75.41 U.S. cents, compared to Wednesday’s close of 75.45.
There were 37,162 contracts traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 31,199 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 31,332 contracts traded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.
Price Change
Canola Mar 463.80 up 0.40
May 472.60 unchanged
Jul 478.70 dn 0.20
Nov 486.00 unchanged
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) were higher on Thursday, as there are hopes that the worst of the coronavirus has passed.
The Phase One trade agreement between the United States and China officially comes into effect on Feb. 15. There have been hopes in the markets that China could begin their US$40 billion in purchases of U.S. agricultural products as early as next week.
In the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) weekly export sales report, for the week ended Feb. 6, soybeans came in at 664,800 tonnes. That was on the low end of trade expectations. Also, the sales were down eight per cent from the previous week, but two points higher than the four-week average. With accumulated sales of 27.45 million tonnes at this point in the 2019/20 marketing year, that’s about 22.6 per cent ahead of this time in the previous marketing year.
The report also said soymeal sales were at 234,200 tonnes, about in the middle of market predictions. Compared to the previous week, sales were up 10 per cent, but down 44 per cent on average. At 39,100 tonnes, soyoil sales exceeded market guesses.
CORN futures were lower on Thursday, as the Brazil real continues to trade at record lows against the U.S dollar, which has been at its highest levels since October 2015.
There were 968,800 tonnes of corn sold last week, according to today’s USDA export sales report. While within trade expectations, the amount was a drop of 22 per cent from the previous week and nine off of the four-week average. Accumulated sales for the current marketing year were at 23.80 million tonnes and 36.3 per cent that this time last year.
WHEAT futures were weaker on Thursday, as a stronger greenback has made U.S. wheat less competitive globally.
The USDA said wheat export sales reached 643,100 tonnes, which was near the high end of market expectations. Also, they were up 90 per cent from the previous week and up 10 points on the average. Total wheat sales were at 16.62 million tonnes, which was 14.1 per cent higher than this time last year.
Strategie Grains estimated the European Union wheat crop, which is the largest in the world, at 138.6 million tonnes in the 2020/21 crop year. That’s a drop of 1.2 million tonnes from their previous estimate.
Egypt reinstituted its pre-shipment inspections for grain and oilseed imports. All grains and oilseeds bound for Egypt are to be inspected at the port of origin and subject to phytosanitary requirements.
In international purchases, Jordan issued a tender for 120,000 tonnes of hard milling wheat and South Korea bought 67,000 tonnes of feed wheat from Canada.
