ICE Canola Contracts Ease As Strong C$ Prompts Selling
| 1 min read
| By Dwayne Klassen, Resource News International |
| April 20, 2010 |
| Winnipeg – Canola contracts on the ICE Futures Canada platform were trading at steady to lower price levels at midday with the upswing in the value of the Canadian dollar encouraging much of the downward price slide, market watchers said.
The Canadian dollar moved above parity with the US currency in early Tuesday activity after the Bank of Canada signalled that it may be willing to hike interest rates sooner than anticipated, brokers said. The firm Canadian unit sparked selling from domestic processors as well as from commercials who had been pricing old Japanese business, traders said. The potential for producers in western Canada to plant record area to canola this spring helped to generate some of the bearish price tone, brokers said. Favourable weather in western Canada for spring fieldwork and seeding operations helped to weigh on prices. The losses in canola were being limited by the buying back of previously sold positions by commodity fund accounts, traders said. The strength in CBOT soybean and soyoil futures were also preventing canola values from dropping too far. Firmness in Malaysian palm oil futures overnight also provided some underlying support as did the absence of hedges in the market, brokers said. There were an estimated 7,271 canola contracts traded at 10:26 CDT. There were no western barley futures traded as of 10:26 CDT. |
