By Dave Sims, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, August 25 – THE ICE Futures Canada canola market finished lower to end the week, weighed down by technical selling and currency issues.
The pending arrival of Hurricane Harvey in the US south caused traders to square positions in case the weather changed drastically over the weekend.
The Canadian dollar was a quarter of a cent stronger, relative to its US counterpart, which made canola less attractive to international buyers.
Losses in US soy and vegetable oil contributed to the declines.
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Farmer selling was a main feature of the day, according to a trader in Winnipeg.
“We’re still at around 125,000 (open interest contracts) which shows there hasn’t been a lot of farmer selling but I think they’ve finally pulled the trigger,” he said, adding the funds were long in the market.
However, expectations that the US will impose duties on imports of bio-diesel from Argentina and Indonesia lent support to prices.
The front-month November contract received technical support at the C$500 per tonne mark.
Around 20,838 canola contracts were traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when around 19,658 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 10,518 of the contracts traded.
Milling wheat, barley and durum were all untraded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.
Soybeans dropped one to two cents on Friday. The market was pressured after a crop tour in the Midwest produced results that were better than expected.
Traders were positioning themselves as Hurricane Harvey was bearing down on the gulf coast.
Demand remains reasonably strong, which helped limit the losses.
Corn finished two to three cents lower as large world supplies and technical selling weighed down the market.
Farmers in the US Corn Belt were delivering supplies to make room for the new crop, which was bearish.
The corn crop in Iowa has been estimated at an average of roughly 180 bushels an acre, which is down 4.5 percent from last year.
The market is locked in a tight trading range.
Wheat was mostly unchanged in choppy trading.
Traders were positioning themselves before the weekend.
The large Russian crop put some pressure on the North American market.
