By Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, April 12 (CNS Canada) – ICE Futures Canada canola contracts were down on Tuesday, hitting their weakest levels in two weeks as a rally in the Canadian dollar weighed on prices.
The Canadian dollar was up by more than three-quarters of a cent relative to its US counterpart, trading back above 78 US cents. The firmer currency was making canola less attractive to international buyers pricing in US funds.
Losses in Malaysian palm oil and Chicago Board of Trade soyoil futures contributed to the softer tone in canola, according to participants. However, soybeans were up on the day, despite the release of a relatively neutral monthly supply/demand report from the US Department of Agriculture.
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Scale down end user demand, along with a lack of significant selling pressure, provided some underlying support.
About 21,604 canola contracts were traded on Tuesday, which compares with Monday when 23,486 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for about 16,520 of the contracts traded.
Milling wheat, durum, and barley futures were all untraded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were up six to nine cents per bushel on Tuesday, hitting their highest levels since August as bullish chart signals and weakness in the US dollar provided support.
The advances in beans came despite relatively neutral stocks data released by the US Department of Agriculture earlier in the session. The updated US soybean ending stocks forecast was in line with expectations, at 445 million bushels. That was down slightly from the previous month, but still well ahead of last year’s level.
World soybean ending stocks, at 79.0 million tonnes, were also right in line with trade guesses.
SOYOIL futures were down on Tuesday, with spreading against soymeal and spillover from the declines in Malaysian palm oil behind some of the activity.
SOYMEAL futures were up on Tuesday.
CORN futures in Chicago were down by four to six cents per bushel on Tuesday, taking back all of Monday’s declines.
The USDA raised both its world and US corn ending stocks forecasts, which did cause corn to back away from earlier gains.
However, the numbers were still well within expectations and attention quickly turned back to spring weather and seeding prospects.
WHEAT futures in Chicago were up by three to five cents per bushel on Tuesday, as the market recovered off of the one-month lows hit on Monday.
The stocks data was mixed as far as wheat was concerned, with US ending stocks a bit tighter than expectations, at 976 million bushels, and the world carry-out forecast above average trade guesses, at 239.3 million tonnes.
In other wheat news, the US winter wheat crop was rated 56% good to excellent in the latest weekly report. That was down by three percentage points from the previous week, but still ahead of last year when only 41% of the crop was in the good-to-excellent category at this time.
