ICE Canada Review: Canola Higher With Spreading The Feature

Overnight gains in Malaysian palm oil and other international vegetable oil markets, along with the firmer tone in crude oil, provided much of the underlying support for canola, according to a broker.

There were also some ideas that canola had lagged soybeans to the upside on Wednesday, and was now catching up to the US market, said participants.

Routine exporter pricing of Japanese business and a lack of significant farmer selling provided further support for canola, said traders.

Concerns about the dry growing conditions in the main soybean producing regions of Brazil and Argentina also helped to inject some support into canola.

However, the upside was limited as traders were reluctant to push values too far with the US markets closed. Ongoing strength in the Canadian dollar, which was nearing parity with the US dollar on Thursday, also tempered the gains in canola, said traders.

About 9,483 contracts traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when an estimated 11,799 contracts changed hands. Spreading was the major feature, accounting for 8,240 of the contracts traded.

Western barley futures were steady to higher, with 11 contracts traded in the December futures right before the close.

Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.