By Dwayne Klassen, Commodity News Service Canada

Winnipeg – August 31/12 – CNS – Canola contracts on the ICE Futures Canada platform were trading at mostly lower price levels at 10:44 CDT Friday morning. The reduction of risk by participants ahead of the Labour Day long holiday weekend accounted for some of the price weakness, market watchers said.

Both Canadian and US markets will be closed on Monday, September 3 for the Labour Day holiday.

Some chart-based liquidation, associated with the “blue moon” factor also contributed to some of the downward price action seen in canola, brokers said. End-of-month liquidation was also evident.

The declines in CBOT soybean and soyoil futures also added to the bearish sentiment in canola as did the upswing in the value of the Canadian dollar.

Traders noted that there have been some ‘weird’ gyrations in the markets associated with US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments.

Some underlying support in canola continued to come from steady domestic crusher demand. The pricing of old export business by commercials also provided a firm floor for canola, traders said.

Continued concerns about lower than anticipated canola yields from the advancing harvest on the Canadian prairies, also slowed the price weakness.

As of 10:44 CDT, about 4,044 canola contracts had traded.

Milling wheat, durum and barley were untraded and unchanged.

Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 10:44 CDT: