By Dave Sims and Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, Nov. 23 – THE ICE Futures Canada canola market ended lower Monday on speculative selling.
Weakness in European rapeseed futures and Malaysian palm oil contributed to the downside while limited farmer selling also helped keep values pointed lower.
Argentina’s new president has expressed a desire to lower the country’s export tax on soybeans, which also weighed on canola. If that were to happen, analysts fear large stockpiles of soybeans could be dumped on the market.
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However, gains in the CBOT soy complex provided strength to the canola market, which helped limit the losses.
The Canadian dollar was weaker relative to its US counterpart, which also gave strength to canola.
China continues to hunt for bargains.
Around 24,604 canola contracts were traded on Monday, which
compares with Friday when around 26,425 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 14,454 of the contracts traded.
Milling wheat, barley and durum were all untraded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade settled six to ten cents per bushel higher on Monday, correcting off of the six-and-a-half year lows hit earlier in the session.
A bearish reaction to the outcome of Argentina’s presidential election weighed on beans early, as the newly elected president has promised to cut export taxes – which could lead to a flood of exports from the South American country.
However, any election promises are still a far way from becoming law, and soybeans managed to correct higher as the day progressed.
Speculative short-covering accounted for some of the eventual strength, with position evening ahead of the US Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday a feature.
SOYOIL settled near unchanged on Monday. While sharp losses in crude oil did put some pressure on the vegetable oil market, the turn higher in soybeans was somewhat supportive on the other side.
SOYMEAL futures were up on Monday, supported by the gains in soybeans and positioning against soyoil.
CORN futures in Chicago were up by three to four cents per bushel on Monday, also recovering from earlier losses.
The likelihood of increased exports from Argentina also put some early pressure on corn, although prices eventually found support and turned higher – just as in beans.
WHEAT futures in Chicago were up by six to ten cents per bushel on Monday, seeing a corrective bounce off of nearby support.
Most of the activity in wheat was speculative in nature, as the fundamentals remained relatively bearish.
Improving moisture conditions for the US winter wheat crop put some pressure on values, while poor export demand also remained a factor in the background.
