By Phil Franz-Warkentin and Dave Sims, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, Dec. 7 (CNS Canada) – ICE Futures Canada canola futures were mixed at Wednesday’s close, with gains in the most active nearby contracts and losses in the deferred new crop contracts.
Canola remains relatively cheap compared to other oilseeds, which kept exporters and domestic crushers on the buy side.
Expectations for tightening old crop supplies were supportive; as Tuesday’s slightly smaller-than-expected production estimate from Statistics Canada was seen heightening the need to ration demand going forward.
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However, market participants generally anticipate upward revisions in future reports.
The Canadian dollar was firmer on Wednesday, which tempered the upside potential in canola.
About 32,738 canola contracts were traded on Wednesday, which compares with Tuesday when 24,675 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 20,090 of the contracts traded.
Milling wheat, durum, and barley were all untraded.
WHEAT futures in Chicago ended five to seven cents per bushel lower on Wednesday as predictions of massive wheat stocks in 2016-17 continued to accumulate.
In addition to recent forecasts calling for larger-than-expected crops in Australia and Canada, private analysts pegged global ending stocks between 248 to 252.6 million tonnes. That compares to the USDA November estimate, which put the total at 249.2 million tonnes.
On the other side, weather forecasts calling for frigid weather to descend on winter wheat fields in the US Plains with little snow cover, were supportive for prices.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade finished one to three cents per bushel higher on Wednesday due to steady demand for US supplies.
The USDA says China and a few other countries purchased 400,000 tonnes of soybeans from private exporters.
However, weather forecasts indicate rain could be returning to dry sections of Argentina next week, which was bearish for prices.
SOYOIL futures were stronger on Wednesday.
SOYMEAL futures corrected lower in the wake of Tuesday’s sharp gains; spreading action from soyoil may also have been a feature.
CORN futures in Chicago suffered modest losses on Wednesday, as traders started to position themselves in advance of Friday’s USDA crop report. A survey by Bloomberg estimated US corn ending stocks at 2.414 billion bushels which would be 11 million bushels larger than the November forecast.
Strength in the US dollar added to the bearish tone.
On the other side, ethanol production numbers in the US increased slightly, which helped prop up prices.
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