ICE Canola Mixed In Thin Trade
| 2 min read
By Don Bousquet
| By Don Bousquet, Resource News International |
| Dec 30, 2009 |
| Winnipeg – Grain and oilseed futures on ICE Futures Canada closed Wednesday’s session mixed with canola seeing small gains in the two nearby contracts and losses in the rest of the market on the decline in Chicago Board of Trade soy complex futures, brokers said. Canola saw a light to moderate trade with intermonth spreading enhancing the volumes. However, activity was overall light as the market comes up to the New Year break with ICE Canada closed on Friday. The total canola volume was estimated at 8,404 contracts, down from Tuesday’s 10,409 contracts, including an estimated 2,550 contracts involved in the spread trade. Canola was a bit lower in the overnight session, prompted by the weak tone in e- cbot soybeans. Canola continued to see small losses as the North America trading session got underway and CBOT soybean futures opened lower. Canola saw a choppy trading session with prices bouncing into the plus column several times during the day. However, the canola market ended mixed with the nearby contracts a bit higher and the remaining contracts lower. Canola was mostly pressured down by the weakness in the US soy complex amid a lack of fresh news. Also weighing on the market was the sluggish pace to fresh export demand and the slower pace to crushing as reported by the Canadian Oilseed Processors Association today. However, futures prices in canola ended mixed with the market bouncing into the plus column throughout Positioning ahead of the expected rebalancing of index commodity funds in January also gave some support, said traders. They did note though that the talk of fund rebalancing in January is just "chatter" and nobody knows for sure if it will happen. Routine crusher and exporter buying was augmented by speculative buying. The selling was mainly commercial. Western barley ended higher in light activity. Commercials dominated the trade with the market comprised of the rolling of January contracts into the March contract ahead of month end, brokers said. The total barley volume was estimated at 38 contracts, down from Tuesday’s 476 contracts, including an estimated 38 contracts involved in the spread trade. Prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton: |
| Price | Change | ||
| Canola | |||
| Mar | 411.00 | up 0.20 | |
| May | 417.10 | up 0.40 | |
| Jul | y 421.60 | dn 0.20 | |
| Western Barley | |||
| Jan | 153.80 | up 1.80 | |
| Mar | 158.80 | up 0.80 | |
