By Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
WINNIPEG, March 24 (CNS Canada) – Canola contracts on the ICE Futures Canada platform were higher at midday Thursday, as gains in Chicago soybeans and weakness in the Canadian dollar provided support.
The Canadian dollar lost a cent relative to its US counterpart on Wednesday and remained pointed lower on Thursday. The softer currency is supportive for crush margins and also makes exports more attractive to international buyers.
Chart-based buying was also somewhat supportive, as participants were squaring positions ahead of the Easter long weekend.
However, canola did run into some resistance to the upside, and moved off its session highs as a combination of farmer hedges and speculative selling put some pressure on values.
About 7,500 canola contracts had traded as of 10:52 CDT.
Milling wheat, durum, and barley futures were all untraded.
