By Phil Franz-Warkentin, MarketsFarm
Winnipeg, April 16 (MarketsFarm) – ICE Futures canola contracts were weaker on Tuesday, although activity was thin and choppy with spreading the feature.
Losses in Chicago Board of Trade soy complex and a steady tone in the Canadian dollar accounted for some of the selling pressure, as crush margins deteriorated on the day.
Ongoing trade tensions with China also continued to weigh on canola values, although those concerns were thought to be largely priced into the market for the time being.
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Canola lagged soybeans to the downside, with supportive chart signals helping temper the declines. Expectations for reduced seeded acres this spring also underpinned the market.
Statistics Canada releases its acreage estimates on Wednesday, April 24.
About 37,851 canola contracts traded on Tuesday, which compares with Monday when 29,048 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 31,564 of the contracts trade.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were weaker on Tuesday, as large losses in wheat spilled into the other grains and oilseeds.
Large old crop supplies in the United States and South American harvest pressure contributed to the losses in soybeans, with little fresh supportive news on the other side to temper the declines.
While trade talks between the U.S. and China are reportedly progressing well, the lack of any tangible results had traders showing some caution.
CORN futures were weaker, also taking direction from a selloff in wheat.
The U.S. corn crop was three per cent seeded in the latest weekly report, which was slightly behind the average for this time of year of five per cent.
Excessive moisture and flooding in some parts of the Midwest has delayed seeding progress, and could see some intended corn acres go into soybeans instead. Forecasts call for more rains in many key growing areas over the next week, which should cause more delays.
WHEAT futures were lower, with some technical stops hit on the way down.
The condition rating of the U.S. winter wheat crop was left unchanged in the latest weekly report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, at 60 per cent good-to-excellent. That marked the best reading for the middle of April in seven years.
The rain causing delays for corn seeding will be beneficial for winter wheat already in the ground, which added to the selling pressure in the Chicago and Kansas City contracts.
Russian forecasters SovEcon pegged the country’s 2019 wheat crop at 83.4 million tonnes, which was up by 3.4 million from an earlier estimate.
The U.S. spring wheat crop was only two per cent seeded in the latest weekly report, which was well off the 13 per cent average for this time of year. Minneapolis spring wheat lagged the winter wheats to the downside as a result.
