ICE Canola Futures Up As Frost Hits Canadian Prairies

Much of the participation was believed to have come from commodity funds, brokers said.

Temperatures in some regions were reportedly in the minus 5 to minus 7 degree Celsius range with the duration of the cold fairly lengthy, brokers commented.

The slow development pace of canola, along with rain related harvest delays has left the crop extremely vulnerable to frost damage. The threat of another cold night overnight Friday into Saturday morning has been forecast, which would effectively end the growing season for much of western Canada, analysts said.

Additional support in canola was coming from the strong advances posted in e-CBOT soybean futures as well as in Malaysian palm oil and European rapeseed futures.

The higher calls for CBOT soybean values with the start of the North American day session were also influencing some of the strength in canola, traders said.

Additional strength in canola also came from the penetration of the November future at C$470 per metric ton, brokers said.

The pricing of old export business to Japan by commercials and some light domestic crusher demand was helping to keep a firm floor under canola, traders said.

Weakness in the Canadian dollar early Friday was also being cited as an underpinning price influence for canola.

Profit-taking at the highs was helping to trim some of the upward price momentum, brokers said.

As of 9:41 EDT, there were 5,186 canola contracts traded.

As of 9:41 EDT, no western barley contracts had been traded.