By Phil Franz-Warkentin, MarketsFarm
Winnipeg, Dec. 23 (MarketsFarm) – The ICE Futures canola market settled with small losses on Monday, backing away from the two month highs hit last week as traders adjusted positions ahead of the holidays.
The North American agricultural markets will close early on Tuesday, with the ICE canola market remaining closed through Christmas and Boxing Day. Trade in canola will resume on Friday, Dec. 27. The Chicago Board of Trade reopens a day earlier.
Ample visible supplies in the commercial pipeline and recent firmness in the Canadian dollar contributed to the weaker tone in canola.
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However, large crush margins helped temper the losses as canola remains attractively priced for end users. Gains in CBOT soybeans also provided some spillover support.
About 32,877 canola contracts traded on Friday, which compares with Friday when 42,945 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 23,180 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were stronger on Monday, seeing some follow-through buying interest after last week’s gains.
Ideas that the trade deal between the United States and China was getting closer to being signed were somewhat supportive.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported private export sales of 126,000 tonnes of soybeans to China this morning.
Total weekly soybean shipments of 1.08 million tonnes were down from the previous week, but helped bring the year-to-date total to 19.8 million tonnes. That was well ahead of last year’s pace.
The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange cut their forecast for Argentina’s soybean crop by 1.5 million tonnes, to 51.1 million tonnes. Planting progress in the country was at about 70 per cent complete.
CORN settled with small gains, taking some direction from soybeans.
The Buenos Aires Grain exchange pegged Argentina’s corn crop at 46.6 million tonnes, which would be down from an earlier estimate and well off the 50 million tonnes projected by the USDA.
WHEAT futures were mixed, with losses in the winter wheats and a firmer tone in Minneapolis spring wheat.
Weekly U.S. wheat shipments of about half a million tonnes helped bring total exports to date to just over 14 million tonnes. That’s ahead of the previous year when 12.9 million tonnes were exported by this time.
