ICE Canola Moves Higher, Harvest Uncertainty Supportive

"The weather is making the market nervous," said a canola broker. He said that while there is currently no explicit threat to the canola crop, widespread showers have delayed the harvest activity in western Canada increasing the chance of frost down the road.

The solid exporter and domestic crusher demand that supported canola prices earlier in the week was slowing down, but the broker said canola was still relatively cheap which was keeping some of that end user demand in the market.

Calls for a higher start in the CBOT soy complex, along with overnight advances in Malaysian palm oil, were also helping underpin canola, according to traders.

A slightly weaker tone in the Canadian dollar provided further support to canola.

Farmer and commercial hedges limited the advances in canola, according to a broker. However, he said the selling was on a scale-up basis, with farmers largely backing away from the market after making larger sales earlier this week.

About 1,300 canola contracts had traded as of 8:48 CDT.

Western barley futures were untraded and unchanged Friday morning.

Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 8:48 CDT: