By Phil Franz-Warkentin, MarketsFarm
Winnipeg, Aug. 15 (MarketsFarm) – The ICE Futures canola market settled with small gains on Thursday, as the market continued to find some strength after dropping earlier in the week.
Crush margins remain at some of their best levels of the past year, making canola attractively priced for end users, according to traders.
Production uncertainty in parts of the Prairies was also supportive. However, the looming harvest kept a lid on the upside, with anecdotal reports pointing to decent crops in many areas.
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Chicago Board of Trade soybeans posted small losses, putting some pressure on canola.
About 12,748 canola contracts traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 16,625 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 5,838 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were weaker on Thursday, seeing some follow-through speculative selling after Wednesday’s declines.
The losses came despite relatively solid United States export data. Net cancellations of old crop business of about 110,000 tonnes more than made up for by new crop business of just over 800,000 tonnes, as some business was shifted into the new crop year.
U.S. soybean crushers were busy in July, setting a new record for the month with 168.1 million bushels of soybeans crushed during the month, according to a report from the National Oilseed Processors Association.
Soyoil stocks still tightened on the month, despite the solid crush pace and an increase in oil yields.
CORN was steady to higher, as the market saw some consolidation after dropping sharply earlier this week on the surprisingly large U.S. Department of Agriculture production forecast.
While corn may be due for a correction, the longer-term chart trend remained pointed lower. Uncertainty in the global financial markets kept some pressure on the corn market.
Weekly U.S. corn export sales of 56,000 tonnes of old crop business and 308,000 tonnes of new crop were in line with expectations.
WHEAT futures were mixed on Thursday, with gains in Kansas City hard red winter wheat and losses in the other markets.
Weekly U.S. wheat export sale of 462,000 tonnes were down from the same week the previous year, but at the higher end of trade estimates.
European wheat production for this year was pegged at 142.9 million tonnes by Strategie Grains. That would be up by 2.3 million from an earlier estimate. The agency also upped their export forecast by nearly three million tonnes, to 24.8 million tonnes.
