By Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, June 14 (CNS Canada) – ICE Futures Canada canola contracts were stronger on Thursday, as weakness in the Canadian dollar helped the market recover from earlier declines.
The Canadian dollar lost more than half a cent relative to its United States counterpart, boosting crush margins and making exports more attractive to international buyers.
Ideas that recent losses were looking overdone also contributed to the rebound higher, according to participants.
However, relatively favourable Prairie crop conditions and continued weakness in Chicago Board of Trade soybeans put some pressure on canola.
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Uncertainty over world trade was also overhanging the grains and oilseeds, with the U.S. possibly set to impose tariffs on China as early as Friday.
About 27,830 canola contracts traded, which compares with Wednesday when 34,181 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 15,524 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were lower on Thursday, as concerns over looming U.S tariffs on Chinese goods and the resulting likelihood of reciprocal tariffs from China weighed on values.
Weekly U.S. soybean export sales came in at about 500,000 tonnes for old crop and nearly 300,000 tonnes new crop, with China notably absent from the list of buyers.
However, the trade war concerns have been an issue for some time now and may be priced into the market.
CORN was also lower, with chart-based speculative selling contributing to the declines as prices neared major technical support.
Midwestern weather conditions are generally favourable for crop development.
Weekly U.S. corn export sales came in above expectations at about 940,000 tonnes old crop and 240,000 tonnes new crop.
WHEAT futures were all lower, with strength in the U.S. dollar index behind some of the weakness as the rising currency should cut into export demand.
Seasonal harvest pressure also weighed on prices.
However, persistent production concerns in a number of wheat growing regions of the world, including Australia and Russia, provided some underlying support.
Weekly U.S. wheat export sales of about 300,000 tonnes were in line with market expectations.
