By Dwayne Klassen, Commodity News Service Canada

Winnipeg – Canola contracts on the ICE Futures Canada platform were trading at firmer price levels at 09:30 EDT Wednesday morning. Canola had traded at lower levels overnight reacting to the declines experienced by CBOT soybean and soyoil values, market watchers said.

Rain in the US Midwest forecast also added to some of the early bearish price sentiment.

However, canola turned higher when CBOT soybean values began to move up.

A lot of the price action and activity in canola was linked to position evening ahead of Friday’s big USDA production and supply/demand report, brokers said. The report will give the first in-field estimate of US soybean/corn

production, and accordingly it is often a market mover, analysts said.

Adding to the support in canola was light commercial demand, believed to be covering both domestic crusher needs and some old export business.

Farmer deliveries have also lightened up as harvest operations begin to take precedence over marketing, brokers said.

Keeping canola from advancing were the new contract lows established by Malaysian palm oil futures overnight.

The continued strength in the Canadian dollar, which remained above parity with the US currency early Wednesday morning, also was viewed as an undermining influence.

As of 9:30 EDT, there were 3,675 canola contracts traded.

As of 9:30 EDT, there were no milling wheat, durum or barley contracts traded.

Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 9:30 EDT: