By Dave Sims, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, September 14 – The ICE Futures Canada canola market finished stronger on Thursday, tracking gains in Chicago Soybeans.
Parts of Western Canada are receiving rain right now, which has delayed the harvest.
The Canadian dollar was slightly weaker, relative to its US counterpart, which made canola more attractive to domestic crushers and foreign buyers.
Dry conditions in South America are causing concerns for soybean farmers ahead of planting.
However, the front-month November contract felt technical resistance at the C$490 mark and the rain is expected to lift in a couple of days.
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“I suspect harvest related pressures will still be the dampening force,” said a trader in Winnipeg. “I can’t be bullish on canola today.”
The market softened a bit at the close as hedges came in.
Around 19,000 canola contracts were traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when around 16,825 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 12,080 of the contracts traded.
Milling wheat, barley and durum were all untraded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.
Soybeans were 13 to 15 cents higher as large funds continued buying on ideas the USDA estimates for the US soybean crop were overdone. Some traders are expecting to see both lower podcounts and podweights this fall.
The crush report for the US soybean sector is due out Friday and expectations are it will be very high.
Brazil is looking very dry ahead of planting, and that was supportive.
Corn was two to three cents stronger on fund-buying amid thin volumes.
China sold 725,000 tonnes of corn yesterday from its state reserves, which was bearish.
The latest estimate for the crop in Argentina calls for production of 41 million tonnes.
Wheat was relatively unchanged in choppy, directionless trade.
Investors were covering short positions, which gave the market a boost in the early going. However traders took profits shortly before the close.
The European Union is expected to export 23 million tons of soft wheat in the 2017-18 season, which is down 1.3 million tonnes from the previous forecast.
