(RNI) — Winnipeg Commodity Exchange (WCE) grain and oilseed
futures closed Tuesday’s session mostly higher with canola hitting its highest level since
1994 on bullish technical signals, brokers said.
Canola saw a very heavy trade with intermonth spreading accounting for a majority
of the volume as commodity funds and commercials were noted rolling their positions
forward.
The total canola volume was estimated at 26,871 contracts, up from Monday’s
16,120 contracts, including an estimated 23,516 contracts that were involved in Tuesday’s
spread trade.
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Canola posted strong gains as bullish technical signals prompted heavy speculative
buying. The firm tone in the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) soy complex and the weakness in the
Canadian dollar also helped to boost the market, traders said. Contributing to the gains
was the disciplined scale up nature of farmer pricing, they added.
Talk of weather problems affecting the South American soybean crop also gave
support.
Weighing on the market was profit taking ahead of year end and news from Australia
that their canola crop was larger than earlier forecast.
Crushers and routine exporter buying was augmented by strong commodity fund
buying. Traders estimate fund buying at 1,000 to 1,500 contracts. The selling was a
combination of speculative profit-taking and commercial offerings. Elevator company
Western barley ended a bit higher in light commercially dominated trade. The
sluggish farmer selling and gains in CBOT corn gave some support, but was balanced off
by lackluster end user demand.
The total barley volume was estimated at 229 contracts, up from Monday’s 219
contracts.
Feed wheat finished little changed in light trade with December/March spreading accounting
for the activity. There was little interest in the market as the total estimated volume was
56 contracts, up from 11 contracts on Monday.
WCE closing prices, Canadian dollars per tonne, Dec. 11, 2007
| Settlement | Change | |
| prices | ||
| Canola | ||
| Jan | 489.60 | up 5.60 |
| Mar | 501.60 | up 6.10 |
| Nov | 486.90 | up 6.30 |
| Feed wheat | ||
| Mar | 191.00 | up 1.00 |
| May | 195.00 | up 1.00 |
| Western barley | ||
| Mar | 204.50 | up 2.50 |
| May | 210.90 | up 1.00 |
