ICE Canola Falls On Weak Soyoil

Canola saw a moderate trade with intermonth spreading giving a boost to the volumes, traders said. Activity overall was described as "lackluster". Positioning was noted ahead of Friday’s Statistics Canada production report.

The total canola volume was estimated at 8,653 contracts, up from Friday’s 8,020 contracts, including an estimated 2,538 contracts involved in the spread trade.

Canola was lower in the overnight session, prompted bya weak tone in international vegetable oil markets. Canola values firmed back to almost unchanged as the North American trading session got underway and the CBOT soybean market saw only small losses. Canola ended lower.

Canola was pressured down by sluggish demand with crushers backing away from the market due to the eroding crush margins and the inabuility to move canola meal into the US because of problems with salmonella contamination. The firm Canadian dollar, advancing harvest and weakness in CBOT soy complex futures contributed to the price slide.

Bearish technical signals prompted some speculative selling.

Underpinning the market was a slower pace to farmer selling, rain interrupting harvesting in parts of western Canada and forecasts for frost. Traders noted that most of the canola crop is past vulnerability to the cold, but there are still small areas of late seeded crops that can be damaged.

Japanese pricing was augmented by routine exporter buying and very light crusher buying. The selling was mainly commercial with light speculative selling noted.

Western barley ended mainly higher in a light trade. Liquidation trade in the soon to be de-listed Oct contract was evident.
The lack of farmer selling gave support in the remainder of the market,
forcing light end user demand to lift prices. .

The total barley volume was estimated at 92 contracts, up
from 81 contracts on Friday.

Prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton: