By Terryn Shiells, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, Dec. 31 – Canola contracts on the ICE Futures Canada platform were softer Wednesday morning, following the losses seen in Chicago soybean and soyoil futures, analysts said.
Spillover pressure also came from the declines seen in Malaysian palm oil and European rapeseed futures overnight.
Expectations that farmers will start selling canola, as the new tax year begins this week, also undermined values.
Some of the weakness was also linked to generally favourable weather for South American soybeans and the stronger Canadian dollar.
The liquidation of long positions ahead of the end of the year was helping to exaggerate the losses, brokers added.
However, commercial demand for Canadian canola supplies remains strong, which limited the declines.
Ongoing worries about monsoons hurting Malaysian palm oil production were also supportive.
As of 8:45 CST Wednesday, about 3,100 contracts had traded.
Milling wheat, durum and barley futures were untraded and unchanged.
Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 8:45 CST:
