WCE close: Canola down on slow demand
| 1 min read
By Don Bousquet
(Resource News International) — Winnipeg Commodity Exchange (WCE) grain and oilseed
futures closed Monday’s session mixed with canola pressured down by a lack of demand
amid only routine selling, brokers said.
Canola saw a moderate trade with intermonth spreading augmenting the activity as
commodity and index funds were rolling Nov contracts into the Jan contract. Muting the
level of trade was the fact that some participants are already sidelined ahead of
Thursday’s Statistics Canada crop production report.
The total estimated canola volume was 9,602 contracts down from Friday’s 15,156
contracts. An estimated 5,620 contracts were involved in the spread trade.
Canola saw a choppy trade ending lower in lackluster activity. The lack of fresh
export demand, the firm Canadian dollar, weakness in Chicago Board of Trade soyoil
futures and rapid weekend harvesting progress weighed on the market.
However, the weakness was offset by gains in CBOT soybean futures, friendly
technical signals and slow farmer selling as they wait for higher cash market bids,
analysts said.
Exporter and crusher buying met light elevator company hedging. Locals and
commission houses were found on both sides of the market, traders said.
Western barley ended narrowly mixed in quiet commercially dominated activity.
The weak tone in CBOT corn and the lack of end user demand undermined the market
with slow farmer selling and tight cash markets creating the choppy tone, brokers said.
There was little fresh news to drive the market.
An estimated 496 barley contracts traded, down from Friday’s 1,877 contracts.
Feed wheat was mainly lower in very small trade. The lack of interest in the market
allowed prices to drift down. The total estimated volume was 9 contracts, down from 152
contracts on Friday.