By Phil Franz-Warkentin, MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, Nov. 6 (MarketsFarm) – The ICE Futures canola market was weaker on Friday, with long-liquidation ahead of the weekend a feature.
After nearing major chart resistance in early activity, the initial buying gave way to speculative profit-taking, according to participants.
Recent strength in the Canadian dollar contributed to the downturn in canola. The Canadian dollar has climbed by nearly two cents relative to its United States counterpart over the past week, which cuts into crush margins and makes exports less attractive.
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However, export demand remained solid in the latest weekly Canadian Grain Commission data, with weekly exports of 364,100 tonnes taking the 2020/21 year-to-date total to just over 3.1 million tonnes. That’s about a million tonnes ahead of what moved during the same timeframe the previous year.
Chicago Board of Trade soybeans were mixed on the day, providing little direction.
About 22,912 canola contracts traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 27,387 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 15,852 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of trade were mixed on Friday, with the bias lower in the most active front months as prices backed away from the four-year highs hit on Thursday.
The United States Department of Agriculture announced private export sales of 132,000 tonnes of soybeans to China this morning and an additional 272,000 tonnes to other unknown destinations. A 30,000-tonne sale of soyoil to South Korea was also announced.
Recent rainfall in Brazil has taking some of the weather premium out of the market, but many areas remain on the dry side and more moisture will be needed for the crops in South America going forward.
Positioning ahead of next week’s monthly USDA supply/demand report accounted for some of the activity, with general expectations calling for declines in both U.S. soybean yields and ending stocks projections.
CORN futures were narrowly mixed, seeing some consolidation ahead of the weekend.
Increasing COVID-19 related restrictions around the world were somewhat bearish for corn, amid expectations for declining fuel demand – including ethanol.
The USDA announced export sales of 207,000 tonnes of corn to unknown destinations.
WHEAT futures retreated from overnight gains to end lower, with a lack of any fresh supportive weather news around the world behind some of the selling.
French farmers were making good progress seeding their winter wheat, with 76 of intended acres in the ground, according to reports. That was up 10 points from the previous week.
All eyes in the grain markets remained on the U.S. presidential election results, with Joe Biden pulling ahead of Donald Trump in a number of key states.
