ICE Canola Eases on Outside Oilseed Weakness

The nearby November, January and March contracts were the mostly actively traded.

Early weakness in canola has been stimulated by the losses exhibited by e-CBOT soybeans, Malaysian palm oil and European rapeseed futures, brokers said.

Contributing to the weakness in canola were the losses seen in CBOT soybean and soyoil futures.

Some selling was also tied to this morning’s grain stocks in all positions report from Statistics Canada. The government agency pegged Canada’s 2008/09 canola supplies as of July 31, 2009 at 1.661 million metric tons. Pre-report expectations had pegged canola carryover at 1.300 million to 1.700 million tons. Ending stocks of canola at the same time a year ago were 1.462 million tons.

Adding to the bearish sentiment in canola were ideas that the canola crop in Western Canada is getting bigger. Good weather conditions over much of western Canada over the past ten days was believed to have helped canola mature and allowed producers to make some significant harvest progress.

The absence of fresh export demand, given the recent appreciation of the Canadian dollar, was also viewed as an undermining price influence in canola, traders said.

The losses in canola were being offset by oversold price sentiment and from steady domestic crusher demand.

Weather outlooks calling for a potential frost in central and northern Alberta this week were also providing some light underlying support.

Some minor support in canola also came from light exporter pricing of old business and the absence of farmer deliveries into the cash pipeline.

There were an estimated 3,668 canola contracts traded at 10:37 CDT. Of the contracts traded 694 were spread related.

There were no western barley futures traded as of 10:37 CDT.

Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 10:37 am CDT: