By Dave Sims, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, February 23 (CNS Canada) – The ICE Futures Canada canola complex finished the week on a high note. Futures eked out small gains on the back of higher vegetable oil prices and trader positioning ahead of the weekend.
The most-active May contract enjoyed some technical support at the C$515 per tonne level.
Wet weather has slowed down the soybean harvest in Brazil, which was supportive. Meantime, new estimates this week have lowered the soybean production outlook in Argentina, which was also bullish.
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Advances in U.S. soybeans gave the market a boost.
However, strength in the Canadian dollar relative to its U.S. counterpart made canola less attractive to international buyers.
Exports have generally been on the slow side this month.
Around 19,808 canola contracts were traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when around 21,679 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 13,268 of the contracts traded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.
The soybean market finished higher on Friday. The market took support from falling production estimates for the soybean crop in Argentina.
The USDA forecast domestic soybean production for the 2018/19 marketing year at just over 4.3 billion bushels.
There are some ideas that the market is overbought.
Rising prices for soymeal are starting to cut into U.S. imports, according to a report from Agrimoney.
Corn futures finished slightly lower to end the week, pressured by strength in the U.S. dollar.
At the USDA’s outlook forum, the agency forecast corn production at 14.39 billion bushels.
Analysts are still trying to gauge how much damage has been done to corn yields in Argentina due to the dry conditions. Weekly U.S. ethanol production was up slightly from last week.
Chicago wheat futures ticked higher on Friday in technical buying.
At the USDA outlook forum, analysts projected U.S. wheat acres at 46.5 million acres, which was up 500,000 acres over last year.
Short-covering helped prop up values.
