ICE Canola Firm On Stronger International Vegoils

Canola trade has been on the light side and traders are expecting limited participation with ICE Canada closed on Friday for New Year’s day. As of 08:21 CST an estimated 364 contracts had traded.

Canola futures were on both sides of Wednesday’s closing values overnight climbing to gains in the early morning, drawing support from the overnight soybean market and international vegetable oil prices. Canola is narrowly mixed as the North American trading day approaches and the Chicago Board of Trade soy complex is expected to rally, brokers said.

Canola is expected to see a lightly traded choppy session with the overall tone today firm.
The main support will come from the strength in CBOT soy complex futures, slow farmer selling and friendly technical signals. However, weighing on the market and creating the choppiness will be the firm Canadian dollar and the continued bearish view of canola, due to ample supplies and uncertainties about exports to China, brokers said.

Year end positioning will also contribute to a choppy tone.

So far commercials have been the main traders, but it was not considered significant in the very small volumes.

Western barley is untraded and unchanged with the bulk of today’s activity expected to be the rolling of Jan contracts into the March contract, brokers said.

There was little news to drive the market.

Prices at 08:34 CST in Canadian dollars per metric ton: