By Dave Sims, Commodity News Service Canada
Winnipeg, August 24 (CNS Canada) – The ICE Futures canola market ended slightly higher in choppy trading Friday, as traders squared positions before the weekend.
Volumes were extremely low as many traders were waiting for next Friday’s Statistics Canada acreage estimates to come out.
With the impending harvest participants are delaying purchases of canola contracts until the harvest begins in earnest.
Uncertainty over canola yields may also have contributed to the lower volumes.
“Some guys are coming in at 30 (bushels an acre), some as high as 60,” said a trader in Winnipeg.
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Rain and cool weather has rolled into parts of Alberta, which could delay harvest efforts in some locations.
Gains in Chicago Board of Trade soyoil lent strength to futures.
Spread-trade was a main feature of today’s activity.
However, strength in the Canadian dollar was bearish for prices.
About 1,419 canola contracts traded, which compares with Thursday when 12,827 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 1,037 of the contracts traded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.
Soybean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade ended close to unchanged Friday, as participants waited for the results of the ProFarmer crop tour to come out. The official numbers were released later in the afternoon and came in at 53 bushels per acre, which was slightly higher than the USDA’s prediction of 51.6 bpa.
ProFarmer pegged final production numbers at 4.683 billion bushels.
Negotiations between China and the United States ended with no real progress on key trade issues.
The corn market ended slightly higher in technical trading.
The crop tour pegged corn yields at 177.3 bushels per acre, which compares to the USDA’s estimate of 178.4 bpa.
Final production numbers were estimated to be 14.501 billion bushels.
China auctioned off 788,000 tonnes of corn overnight.
Chicago wheat futures ended lower as weak export sales continue to pressure wheat prices.
Rain in the U.S. Plains has also been problematic for any farmers who were harvesting.
The government of Argentina expects to plant 6.3 million hectares of wheat in 2018/19, which would be up from last year’s figure of 6.2 million.
