By Phil Franz-Warkentin and Jade Markus, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, March 24 (CNS Canada) – ICE Futures Canada canola contracts held onto small gains on Thursday, after bouncing around both sides of unchanged in choppy activity.
Weakness in the Canadian dollar, which has lost more than a cent relative to its US counterpart over the past week, provided underlying support throughout the session, according to participants.
Chart based buying was said to be another feature, as participants squared positions ahead of the Easter long weekend.
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However, canola ran into resistance to the upside, and settled well off its session highs as a combination of farmer hedges and speculative selling pressured values. Losses in CBOT soyoil were also bearish.
About 14,168 canola contracts were traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 22,425 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for about 8,238 of the contracts traded.
Milling wheat, durum, and barley futures were all untraded, although prices were revised after the close.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed four to five cents per bushel stronger on Thursday as traders squared positions ahead of the long weekend.
While soybean sales were weaker on the week, traders propped up prices, as the country is moving closer to its sales targets regardless.
Soybean sales for the week ended March 17 reached 410,800 metric tonnes, according to United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) data.
US and Canadian markets are closed on March 25 for Good Friday.
SOYOIL prices settled weaker on Thursday, tracking Malaysian palm oil.
SOYMEAL closed stronger on Thursday as exports—of soymeal and soy cake—reached a marketing year high at 468,700 metric tonnes.
CORN futures closed one to two cents per bushel higher on Thursday, as traders opted out of risky positions ahead of the long weekend.
Investor short-covering ahead of next week’s prospective plantings report due out from the USDA on March 31 was also a feature.
WHEAT closed mostly unchanged on Thursday, with slight gains in far contracts, as advances in the US dollar balanced stronger export data.
A higher US dollar makes the country’s commodities less appealing to foreign buyers.
But strong export data supports the idea that demand for US commodities isn’t as bearish as anticipated.
Wheat sales for the week ended March 17 for delivery in marketing year 2015/16 were up 73 per cent from the previous week, and 16 per cent stronger than the previous four-week average, according to USDA data.
– Russia’s wheat exports are expected to be between 23 and 23.5 million metric tonnes, market watchers say.
– Ethiopia is doubling-up on its wheat purchases due to ship bottlenecks and drought conditions.
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