ICE Canola Firm On Slow Selling

Canola saw a very light trade with only an estimated 3,500 contracts traded as of 11:24 CDT.
Activity is expected to be light ahead of Wednesday’s USDA production and supply demand reports. Traders note that the August report has frequently contained "surprises".

Canola was modestly higher despite a weak tone in Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures. Traders felt the weakness in soybeans was mainly soymeal driven and canola reacts more to soyoil than soymeal because it has twice as much oil content as soybeans.

Canola drew support from the very slow pace of farmer selling and tightening supplies in the cash market as the market faces a strong export program for canola in September, brokers said.

Also giving some support was the weak Canadian dollar and the firm tone in the CBOT soyoil market.

Further support could be tied to the weather uncertainty, with frost a continued threat to the crop as it lags normal crop development by 2 to 4 weeks.

Weighing on the market was the moderate declines in CBOT soybean market and bearish technical signals. As weakness in CBOT soybeans intensified it pulled canola down to almost unchanged.

Routine exporter and crusher buying met commission house speculative selling and light commercial offerings.

Western barley was untraded and unchanged.

Prices at 11:20 CDT in Canadian dollars per metric ton: