By Phil Franz-Warkentin, MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, Nov. 26 (MarketsFarm) – The ICE Futures canola market was mixed on Friday, after trading to both sides of unchanged in choppy activity in reaction to conflicting outside influences.
Concerns over a new COVID-19 variant sparked sharp losses in crude oil and equity markets on Friday, with resulting weakness in the Chicago Board of Trade soy complex spilling into the canola market as well.
However, the Canadian dollar was also down sharply on the day, which helped temper the declines. The underlying fundamentals of tight supplies and the need to ration demand also remained supportive, helping the front months move higher.
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Markets in the United States closed early on Friday due to the Thanksgiving holiday, while the canola market traded its usual hours.
About 20,719 canola contracts traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 4,433 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 13,144 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were down sharply on Friday, as the uncertainty over a new COVID-19 variant sparked a selloff in crude oil and other outside markets.
Good crop prospects out of South America were also bearish, with the losses likely exaggerated by the thin holiday volumes. Markets closed early due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
Weekly United States soybean export sales at over 1.5 million tonnes were solid, up 13 per cent from the previous week and at the higher end of expectations.
CORN was also pressured by the renewed pandemic concerns, dropping by double digits at one point during the session.
However, some support was uncovered to the downside and corn managed to finish stronger.
Speculative positioning was a likely feature behind the late turn higher, with solid export demand also supportive.
Weekly U.S. corn export sales, at just over 1.4 million tonnes, topped trade guesses.
WHEAT finished mixed, with gains in Minneapolis spring wheat and losses in the winter wheats.
Weekly U.S. wheat export sales, at about 570,000 tonnes, were roughly double what was sold the previous week, but still down from the same week a year ago.
The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange raised their forecast for Argentina’s wheat crop to 20.3 million tonnes. That would be up by 500,000 from an earlier forecast.
