ICE Canola Down Following Outside Markets, Weather

With no real fresh news to drive the market, canola futures were dropping in sympathy with most other agricultural commodities on Monday, said a Winnipeg-based broker. He thought sharp declines in crude oil, along with weakness in equities, were behind much of the spillover selling pressure in canola.

In addition, weather forecasts for the next week look favourable across western Canada and should allow for good harvest progress, said the broker. "The crop’s not getting smaller, it’s getting bigger," he added noting that the good weather will likely help the canola crop come in larger than the 9.5 million tons recently forecast by Statistics Canada.

While canola was down on the day, the futures were holding up reasonably well compared to soybeans. Traders said sharp declines in the Canadian dollar were likely providing some support for the market.

At 10:53 CDT, about 7,900 canola contracts had changed hands.

Western barley futures were lower at midsession with 208 contracts traded by 10:53 CDT. Losses in CBOT corn accounted for some of the selling pressure in barley. Large global feed grain supplies were another bearish price influence, according to traders.

Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 10:53 CDT: