ICE Canola Unchanged To Slightly Higher In Light Trade

Canola’s slightly firm tone was tied to minor overnight gains in vegetable oil markets including the e-CBOT soy complex and European rapeseed futures, while Malaysian palm oil values held steady, traders said.

Also encouraging light commercial and local buying interest were ideas that yesterday’s grains and oilseeds sell-off in response to swine flu fears had been overdone and that values were in need of upward correction, market watchers said.

Expectations that CBOT soybeans may start the North American trading session 10 US cents a bushel higher added to the buying interest.

There is underlying support for the canola market tied to last week’s Statistics Canada report which forecast fewer canola acres in western Canada this spring than the trade had expected, brokers.

The smaller than expected soybean harvest in Argentina was also viewed by traders as a supportive fundamental feature for North American oilseed markets, they said.

In early activity, the Canadian dollar was slightly weaker versus the US dollar, also mildly bullish for canola contracts.

However, weak equity markets and losses in crude oil futures limited canola’s upside potential overnight and may continue to temper gains in grains and oilseeds as trade progresses.

Overnight volumes in canola were very thin, with activity only picking up ahead of the start of the North American session. As of 9:02 CDT, 1,315 canola contracts had been traded, a portion of which were tied to inter-month spreading.

Western barley futures were untraded and unchanged as of 9:02 CDT.

Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 9:02 CDT: