ICE Canola Lower On Slow Demand

Canola saw a light trade with an estimated 1,061 contracts exchanged
as of 08:22 CDT. Activity remains subdued and is expected to be choppy ahead of Thursday’s Statistics Canada crop production report which will be released at 07:30 CDT.

Canola futures traded on both sides of Tuesday’s close in the overnight market as the weak tone in international vegetable oil prices weighed on the market. Canola turned lower overnight and continued to see losses as the North American trading session approached.
Expected losses in Chicago Board of Trade soy complex futures weighed on the market, analysts said.

Contributing to the weakness was a slower pace to demand with export interest lackluster as canola exports to China remain uncertain.
The continued strike of locomotive engineers against CN Rail also pressured the market down. Ideas that Thursday’s StatsCan report will show a larger canola production number than their last report also weighed on prices.

However, traders did note that technical signals remain friendly even though they have backed down from yesterday’s highs. The weak Canadian dollar and improving crush margins are also helping to underpin the market.

There is little really fresh news to drive the canola market and traders feel that the market will take its cue from speculative activity with commodity funds being watched closely.
"I think funds want to add to their longs, but they are still not seeing strong enough technical signals to do significant buying", said a broker.

Commercials have dominated the small early trade.

Western barley is untraded and unchanged so far.

Prices at 08:38 CDT in Canadian dollars per metric ton: