By Phil Franz-Warkentin, MarketsFarm
Winnipeg, Nov. 15 (MarketsFarm) – The ICE Futures canola market continued to lack any clear direction on Friday, holding within a narrow sideways trading pattern to end narrowly mixed.
Losses in Chicago soyoil cut into crush margins, which put some pressure on values.
However, margins remained near their best levels of the past year, with good demand from domestic processors providing some support.
The crush pace is running well ahead of the year ago level, with 2.9 million tonnes processed during the crop year to date, according to the latest Canadian Grain Commission data. That’s about 600,000 tonnes ahead of the year ago pace.
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Ample supplies in the commercial pipeline kept a lid on the upside, although farmer deliveries were starting to show signs of slowing down.
About 12,334 canola contracts traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 13,039 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 8,504 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade settled with small gains on Friday on the back of solid end-user demand.
The monthly National Oilseed Processors Association (NOPA) crush report showed 175.4 million bushels of soybeans were processed in the United States in October. That was about 9 million bushels above average trade guesses and a new record for the month.
Weekly U.S. soybean exports of 1.2 million tonnes were down from the previous week, although China was a major buyer and total exports to date were running ahead of last year’s pace.
CORN settled lower on Friday, breaking below nearby support to hit its softest levels since late September.
Weekly U.S. corn export sales of just over 600,000 tonnes were up from the previous week and in line with trade guesses.
Europe’s Stategie Grains pegged the EU’s corn crop at 63.5 million tonnes, which was a downward revision of 100,000 tonnes from a previous estimate.
WHEAT futures remained pointed lower with speculative positioning ahead of the weekend a feature.
Weekly U.S. wheat export sales of 240,000 tonnes came in at the lower end of trade expectations, and contributed to the downturn.
Concerns over recent cold temperatures in some U.S. winter wheat growing regions were supportive, although conditions remain relatively favourable overall.
