By Dwayne Klassen, Commodity News Service Canada

Winnipeg – September 6/12 – CNS – Canola contracts on the ICE Futures Canada platform were trading at mostly lower price levels at 10:26 CDT Thursday morning. The taking of profits after Wednesday’s run up in values helped to stimulate some of the downward price action, market watchers said.

Adding to the price declines in canola were the losses posted overnight in Malaysian palm oil futures and the losses experienced by CBOT soybean and soyoil values, brokers said.

A drop off in the level of exporter pricing by commercials also helped to facilitate some of the price weakness seen in canola, traders said.

Cash canola sales by farmers and an upswing in the value of the Canadian dollar Thursday morning also added to the bearish sentiment in the commodity.

Some liquidation of positions ahead of the Statistics Canada grain stocks in all positions report scheduled for release Friday morning also weighed on canola futures, brokers said.

The losses in canola were slowed by steady domestic crusher demand and continued concerns about canola yields coming in at a smaller than anticipated level. Traders said Statistics Canada’s 2012/13 (Aug/Jul) canola production estimate of 15.4 million tonnes was unlikely to be achieved due to the poor yields, with industry projections now closer to the 14.5 million tonne range.

As of 10:26 CDT, about 4,866 canola contracts had traded.

There were 10 durum contracts traded with commercials the noted participants.

Milling wheat and barley were untraded and unchanged.

Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 10:26 CDT: