By Phil Franz-Warkentin, MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, March 16 (MarketsFarm) – The ICE Futures canola market dropped to fresh contract lows ion Monday, as global uncertainty over the COVID-19 coronavirus weighed on prices.
Efforts to stop the spread of the virus continue to ramp up, with the unprecedented nature of the worldwide response leading to a bearish tone in the equity and commodity markets.
Sharp losses in Chicago Board of Trade soybeans and soyoil added to the bearish tone in canola.
However, the market did manage to settle off of its session lows, with oversold price sentiment and weakness in the Canadian dollar providing some support.
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About 25,437 canola contracts traded on Monday, which compares with Friday when 23,060 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 16,490 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were weaker on Monday, amid coronavirus related selling pressure as traders bailed out of long positions and moved to the sidelines.
Weekly United States soybean export inspections of 436,000 tonnes were the lowest of the marketing year to date, with no shipments to China in the latest week.
However, total exports during the crop-year-to-date are still running slightly ahead of last year.
The advancing Brazilian harvest added to the softer tone, with newly harvested supplies from the country starting to displace U.S. beans on the global market.
The U.S. Federal Reserve dropped interest rates to near zero over the weekend in an effort to help prop up the economy in the face of the COVID-19 crisis.
CORN futures were also caught up in the broad selling pressure on Monday.
Weekly U.S. corn export inspections of just under a million tonnes were solid, helping temper the declines to some extent. Mexico and Japan were both major buyers.
WHEAT futures were mixed, with Minneapolis spring wheat the lone spot of green in the grain markets on Monday.
Weekly U.S. wheat export inspections came in at about 450,000 tonnes. That was down slightly from the previous week, but up from the same week a year ago. Total U.S. wheat shipments during the marketing year to date of 19.7 million tonnes are well ahead of the 18 million tonnes shipped during the same time last year.
Excessive moisture in the northern U.S., and forecasts calling for more precipitation in the region, contributed to the relative strength in Minneapolis spring wheat amid expectations for possible seeding delays.
