By Dave Sims and Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, October 30 – THE ICE Futures Canada canola market ended higher in volatile trading Friday, taking strength from gains in the US soy complex.
Speculator buying gave the market a boost in the early going, however it did not last, as traders began to take profits and values dropped from their highs.
Demand from China and gains in European rapeseed futures helped underpin the market.
Traders were positioning themselves ahead of the weekend.
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However, the loonie was half a cent stronger relative to its US counterpart which made canola less attractive to foreign buyers.
Malaysian palm oil was lower which dragged on values while North American harvest pressure also weighed on prices.
Milling wheat, barley and durum were all untraded.
A total of 14,515 canola contracts were traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 23,766 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 4,942 of the contracts traded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were up by five to six cents per bushel on Friday, as some
fresh export demand provided support.
The USDA reported a fresh export sale of 120,000 tonnes of US soybeans to China, which added to the solid weekly export
Weakness in the US dollar contributed to the firmer tone in soybeans, according to participants. Technical month-end
positioning was another feature of the day’s activity.
On the other side, the large US soybean crop and improving South American weather conditions did limit the advances.
SOYOIL settled higher on Friday.
SOYMEAL futures were higher on Friday.
CORN futures in Chicago were up by one to two cents per bushel on Friday, finding some spill-over support from the gains
in wheat and soybeans.
However, corn remains stuck in a narrow range, with expectations that the USDA will raise its production forecasts in
its November report limiting the upside.
WHEAT futures in Chicago were up by three to seven cents per bushel on Friday, with a move above nearby chart resistance
encouraging some additional speculative buying.
Weather concerns in a number of wheat growing regions of the world – including Australia, the Black Sea region, and parts of
the US Plains – remained supportive.
The solid weekly export sales reported on Thursday also remained a supportive influence to end the week, as concerns
eased over the poor demand for US wheat seen recently.
– Heavy rains are in the forecasts for some of the wheat
growing regions of Australia, which could lead to quality
downgrades after dry conditions caused problems earlier in
the growing season.
– The state-owned Food Corporation of India will likely sell a
record 7 million tonnes of wheat to bulk customers on the
open market during the current marketing year, according to
officials.
– Argentina’s Buenos Aires Grain Exchange is forecasting wheat
production in the country this year at 9.5 million tonnes,
which would be the smallest crop in three years.
