By Glen Hallick, MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, Feb. 5 (MarketsFarm) – Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Futures canola contracts were mostly lower on Friday, due to declines in Chicago soyoil and a higher Canadian dollar.
Although Chicago soyoil was down, there were gains in European rapeseed and Malaysian palm oil.
The Statistics Canada report on grain stocks as of Dec. 31 helped to temper further declines. The federal agency said total canola stocks were 12.14 million tonnes, down about 24 per cent from the end of December 2019.
The demand for canola has remained strong according to the latest numbers from the Canadian Grain Commission. For the week ended Jan. 31, producer deliveries were 398,100 tonnes and down 2.8 per cent from the previous week. Canola exports reached 258,500 tonnes, vaulting almost 124 per cent. Domestic usage was up a pinch at 198,300 tonnes.
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At mid-afternoon the Canadian dollar was up more than a third of a cent. The loonie was at 78.30 U.S. cents after closing Thursday at 77.95.
There were 25,064 contracts traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 27,257 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 14,962 contracts traded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.
Price Change
Canola Mar 692.30 dn 3.20
May 674.60 dn 1.00
Jul 653.90 dn 3.50
Nov 559.30 dn 1.80
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) were lower on Friday, due in part to profit-taking as well as lack of fresh news.
Ahead of the next supply and demand report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), soybean ending stocks are expected to decrease by nearly 12 per cent at 3.35 million tonnes. The USDA will issue its World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) on Feb. 9 at 11 CST.
Brazil had rain of up to three-quarters of an inch in its Santa Catarina and Parana states yesterday. Over the coming five days rainfall of between two to four inches is expected for Minas Gerais, Goias and Mato Grasso. The remainder of the country’s growing areas are forecast to get less than a half-inch.
The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange (BAGE) trimmed 500,000 tonnes off of its projection for the Argentina soybean harvest, which is now pegged at 46 million tonnes. The exchange cited dry conditions as the reason for the reduction.
CORN futures were steady to lower on Friday in following the same trend as soybeans.
The USDA reported a private sale of 101,600 tonnes of corn to unknown destinations. Delivery is to be during the current marketing year.
Projections prior to Tuesday’s WASDE have corn ending stocks falling more than 10 per cent at 35.3 million tonnes.
The USDA attaché in Brazil called for a two million-tonne drop in the country’s total corn production for 2020/21. The attaché’s report said the crop would be 105 million tonnes, because of delays in planting corn.
BAGE cut its forecast for the Argentina corn crop by one million tonnes at 46 million tonnes, citing dry conditions.
WHEAT futures were higher Friday on news regarding export taxes in Russia and Argentina.
Russia is reportedly set to tweak its wheat export tax on June 2. On that day, Russia will move to a tariff formula that will be 70 per cent of the difference when wheat prices are above US$200 per tonne. There will be no tax levied on anything below that level.
The Argentina government suggested it could increase export taxes as a means to reduce inflation in domestic food prices.
U.S. wheat ending stocks are expected to dip by 500,000 tonnes at 22.7 million tonnes.
Statistics Canada reported that total wheat stocks as of Dec. 31 were nearly 24.85 million tonnes. That’s about 3.8 per cent less than at the end of December 2019. Durum stocks were pegged at 4.76 million tonnes, up 2.2 per cent from the previous December.
