WCE close: Canola moves down on hedging

(RNI) — Canola futures at the Winnipeg
Commodity Exchange finished Thursday’s mainly lower after
starting the day off on a mostly firmer footing.

The closure of Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) markets for U.S. Thanksgiving resulted in a number of market participants taking to
the sidelines.

Some support across the board came from light commercial demand
while firmness in the Canadian dollar was seen as an undermining
price influence, market watchers said.

WCE feed wheat and western barley futures were mixed.

Canola futures were mainly lower after trading at slightly
higher levels for the bulk of the day. Early advances in canola
reflected the gains posted in Malaysian palm oil futures overnight
as well as some good commercial demand. Some of the commercial
interest was said to be covering routine export business with Japan,
traders said.

Light commission house chart-related buying helped canola
futures move up early in the session.

Some of the early gains posted in canola were also linked to
sentiment that CBOT soybean and soyoil futures would open higher on
Friday.

The advances were slowly eroded by profit-taking as well as by steady elevator company hedge selling, brokers said. Line companies
were said to be offering $10 a bushel for canola in Manitoba and
Saskatchewan, with producers taking the companies up on those
offers. Firmness in the Canadian dollar was also an undermining
price influence in canola.

There were an estimated 6,550 canola contracts traded during
Thursday’s session, down from 17,670 during the previous session. Of
the contracts traded, 4,394 were spread-related.

Western barley futures were steady to mostly lower. Losses in
barley reflected the absence of fresh domestic end-user demand with
commercials the featured sellers, traders said.

An estimated 53 barley contracts changed hands during the
session. On Wednesday, 422 contracts were traded.

Feed wheat values were higher, with it only taking a small
amount of commercial bidding in the absence of willing sellers to
push up values, brokers said.

There were 27 feed wheat contracts traded Wednesday. On
Wednesday, 10 feed wheat contracts changed hands.

WCE closing prices, Canadian dollars per tonne, Nov. 22, 2007

WCE spread trade prices, in Canadian dollars. “Volume” represents the number of spreads.