By Dwayne Klassen, Commodity News Service Canada Inc.

Winnipeg – July 198/12 – Canola futures on the ICE Canada trading platform finished Friday’s session higher with support throughout the day stemming from new long range weather outlooks issued for the US soybean belt that could seriously hurt the yield potential of that crop, market watchers said.

The subsequent gains in CBOT soybean futures helped to fuel the rally seen in canola with some strength also stemming from the advances seen overnight in European rapeseed futures, brokers said.

Light commercial demand, said to be pricing old export business to Japan, further underpinned values.

The minor downswing in the value of the Canadian dollar Friday also provided a firm floor for canola values to work with.

Some light commodity fund and speculative demand was also evident, and contributed to the friendly price tone in canola.

The upside in canola was tempered by the taking of profits and the liquidation of positions ahead of the weekend by a variety of market participants, brokers said.

Elevator company hedge selling, spurred on by steady farmer deliveries of canola into the cash pipeline in western Canada, further restricted the price strength.

Mostly favourable weather conditions for the development of the canola crop on the Canadian prairies also limited the upside price potential.

There were an estimated 15,846 canola contracts traded Friday, down from the 18,691 contracts that changed hands during the previous session. Of the contracts traded, 8,450 were spread related.

There were no barley, durum or milling wheat contracts traded during the session. However, values were increased by ICE Canada for milling wheat and lowered fractionally for barley contracts.

Prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.