By Phil Franz-Warkentin, MarketsFarm
Winnipeg, April 5 (MarketsFarm) – ICE Futures canola contracts settled narrowly mixed on Friday, with losses in the front months and gains in the new crop contracts as traders squared positions ahead of the weekend.
Declines Chicago Board of Trade soybeans and ongoing uncertainty over Canada’s trade dispute with China weighed on values throughout the day.
However, the trade concerns are priced into the market for the time being, and participants said the market was seeing some consolidation.
A steady tone in CBOT soyoil and weakness in the Canadian dollar was also supportive.
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About 22,989 canola contracts traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 26,479 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 12,366 of the contracts trade.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were weaker on Friday, taking back Thursday’s gains.
While optimism over a possible trade deal between the United States and China underpinned soybeans yesterday, that optimism faded on Friday as details on an actual concrete deal continued to be pushed back.
Wet fields and forecasts calling for more moisture across the Midwest over the next two weeks also weighed on prices amid expectations that a late start to spring seeding will see some intended corn acres switch to soybeans instead.
CORN futures were lower on Friday, as threats from U.S. President Donald Trump about placing tariffs on Mexican imports pressured values. Mexico is a major corn buyer and corn would be a likely target for retaliation.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture releases its monthly world supply/demand report on Tuesday, April 9, and positioning ahead of the report accounted for some of the activity. Corn ending stocks are generally expected to be around 2 billion bushels.
WHEAT futures were lower, with chart-based speculative selling was a feature after the Chicago contract ran into technical resistance on Thursday.
Ample world supplies and poor export demand added to the softer tone
However, oversold price sentiment in Minneapolis spring wheat provided some support there.
