By Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, March 8 (CNS Canada) – ICE Futures Canada canola contracts settled narrowly mixed on Tuesday, recovering from earlier losses in the final minutes of trade.
Ongoing uncertainty over tightening dockage allowances in China kept exporters on the sidelines, as any sales booked now are unlikely to make their way to China until after the April 1st start date for the new standards, said a broker.
Generally bearish technical signals added to the softer tone throughout the day.
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However, sharp weakness in the Canadian dollar relative to its US counterpart provided underlying support, with crush margins showing some improvement.
Advances in CBOT soybeans were also somewhat supportive, although soyoil was down.
The USDA releases its latest monthly supply/demand report on Wednesday, and positioning ahead of the data was a feature.
About 12,123 canola contracts were traded on Tuesday, which compares with Monday when 11,357 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for about 4,980 of the contracts traded.
Milling wheat, durum, and barley futures were all untraded and unchanged.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were up by two to four cents per bushel on Tuesday, as traders squared positions ahead of Wednesday’s USDA supply/demand report.
Reports that truck drivers in Brazil are set to take strike action over the next week provided underlying support, as movement of recently harvested supplies could be hampered.
Follow-through buying interest after Monday’s gains was also supportive.
However, some analysts are anticipating a bearish reading in tomorrow’s stocks data which tempered the upside.
Losses in crude oil and the equity markets were also overhanging the grains and oilseeds.
SOYOIL settled with small losses on Tuesday, with losses in crude oil behind some of the selling pressure.
SOYMEAL futures were higher on Tuesday.
CORN futures in Chicago were up by one to three cents per bushel, after trading to both sides of unchanged in thin activity.
Chart based buying accounted for most of the support, with most fundamental signals remaining relatively bearish.
Farmer selling was said to be picking up across the US countryside, while concerns over declining demand from both China and the ethanol sector were also overhanging the corn market.
WHEAT futures in Chicago were up by one to three cents per bushel on Tuesday, recovering from early losses by the close.
Weather concerns in some winter wheat growing regions of the US, as the crops start to break dormancy, helped lend underlying support to the futures.
However, any gains were tempered by the continued lack of significant export demand for US wheat. Ideas that the already large US and world carryout forecasts will be revised higher by the USDA tomorrow were also overhanging the wheat market, said participants.
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