ICE Canada Review: CBOT Soyoil Undermines Canola

Sentiment that Thursday’s advances were overdone and that canola was in need of a downward correction also weighed on prices.

Position evening ahead of the weekend and next week’s supply/demand tables scheduled to be released by the USDA was a feature of the activity.

The stocks in all positions report released early Friday morning by Statistics Canada was seen as mostly neutral for canola futures, brokers said.

Some early weakness in canola had been tied to the upturn in the value of the Canadian dollar. However, the Canadian unit had weakened off by the close, which in turn helped restrict some of the price slide, traders said.

The lack of follow-through demand that surfaced during Thursday’s session was also an undermining price influence in canola, traders said.

Some early losses in canola were also influenced by some hedge offers from elevator companies. Brokers noted that any upturn in canola futures was seen as a selling opportunity.

The losses in canola were limited in part by scale down commercial buying, which was said to be covering old export business and some minor domestic crusher demand, brokers said.

There were an estimated 12,957 canola contracts traded Friday, down from 14,553 during the previous session. Of the contracts traded, 7,252 were spread related.

Western barley futures were slightly lower in non-existent activity. Weakness in CBOT corn futures was an undermining price influence with the absence of fresh end-user demand adding to the bearish price sentiment. Some underlying support in barley was associated with the Statistics Canada stocks report which put barley supplies in Canada on the tight side, brokers said.

No barley contracts changed hands during the session. On Thursday, 6 barley contracts were traded.