ICE Canola Down On Advancing Harvest

Canola saw a moderate trade with intermonth spreading augmenting the volume of trade.

The total canola volume was estimated at 11,151 contracts, up from 8,982 contracts on Wednesday.

Canola was mostly lower in the overnight session reflecting the weakness in the e- cbot soybean market and the advancing harvest. Canola continued to see losses as the North American trading session got underway and the Chicago Board of Trade soybean market opened lower, traders
said.

Canola was pressured down by the advancing harvest as the Canola Council of Canada reported that almost 90% of the western Canadian canola crop was swathed. Favourable growing conditions through the weekend and reports that farmers are finding yields larger than expected also weighed on prices. "Farmers are generally finding yields better than they expected, although they are still a bit below average", said one cash trader.

Bearish technical signals and weakness in CBOT soybean markets further contributed to the declines, analysts said.

Losses in canola were only modest as
talk of export interest and ideas that canola was oversold gave some support.
Environment Canada forecast frost for central Alberta next week, but traders generally felt the impact would be minimal as the recent favourable weather has moved much of the crop passed the point of problems, traders said.

Exporters and crushers were noted buyers with the selling a combination of speculative and commercial offerings. Elevator company selling was steady with farmers delivering off the combine, said cash dealers.

Western barley ended a bit higher in light trade. The Oct contract continues to reflect the liquidation activity in the contract. The Nov contract posted modest gains on the lack of farmer selling despite the advancing barley harvest and moderate losses in the CBOT corn market, brokers said.

The total barley volume was estimated at 78 contracts, down from 85 contracts on Wednesday.

Prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton: