By Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, Sept. 20 (CNS Canada) – ICE Futures Canada canola contracts settled with small gains in the most active months, as weather concerns in parts of Western Canada were enough to counter the seasonal harvest pressure.
Cool and wet conditions across Alberta are expected to lead to harvest delays. With snow in some areas, the reminder of the poor fall weather of 2016, that saw many fields left until the spring to be harvested, was back on the mind of many industry participants.
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However, there is still plenty of time to get the crop off, and expectations for record large production overall tempered the upside.
Chicago Board of Trade soybeans were higher on the day, providing some spillover support for canola. However, the Canadian dollar was also stronger, which cuts into crush margins and makes exports less attractive to international buyers.
About 13,246 canola contracts traded on Wednesday, which compares with Tuesday when 18,457 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 7,326 of the contracts traded.
Milling wheat, durum, and barley were all untraded.
Milling wheat, durum, and barley were all untraded, although prices were revised after the close.
Soybeans at the Chicago Board of Trade moved higher on Wednesday, as solid export demand provided support.
The USDA reported private export sales of just over a million tonnes to ‘unknown destinations’ this morning, with an additional 132,000 tonne sale to China.
However, the US soybean harvest is in its early stages and traders were also showing some caution as they wait to get a better handle on yields and the actual size of this year’s crop.
Weather uncertainty in South America remained an influence in the background as well, with dryness in Brazil and excessive moisture in Argentina raising some concerns.
Corn settled with small gains, although activity was thin and choppy lacking any clear direction.
Spillover from the advances in soybeans provided some support, although there was no fresh demand news for corn itself.
Wheat was higher on the day, with chart-based speculative buying accounting for some of the strength, amid ideas that recent losses were overdone.
Canada’s smaller wheat crop, production issues in Australia, and flooding in Argentina were also supportive.
However, large wheat supplies out of the Black Sea region kept a lid on the upside.
