ICE Canola Corrects Slightly Lower

Calls for a lower start in CBOT soybeans, after that market rallied sharply Wednesday, were also putting some spillover pressure on canola, according to traders.

The Canadian dollar was stronger in early trade, moving to within a cent of its US counterpart, adding to the bearish tone in canola, said traders. A firmer currency cuts into domestic crush margins and also makes canola less attractive to export customers.

However, the end-user demand still remains solid for canola overall, limiting the downside.

Statistics Canada will be releasing its updated production estimates on Friday and market participants were expected to be showing some caution ahead of the report.

Most traders are anticipating upward revisions to canola yields. However, actual production may not increase all that much if StatsCan adjusts their acreage numbers lower, according to some analysts.

Malaysian palm oil futures were higher overnight, providing some underlying support for canola.

About 900 canola contracts had traded as of 8:43 CST.

Western barley futures were untraded and unchanged Thursday morning, after traders cleaned out the last of the open interest in the December contract on Wednesday.

Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 8:43 CST: