ICE Canola Weakens, As Bias Remains Down

Traders said the overall bias in the oilseed markets remains lower, and calls for a weaker start for the CBOT soy complex were weighing on canola values.

However, after seeing some buying come forward late in the day Thursday, there were some suggestions that canola could see some follow-through speculative short-covering on Friday.

Slight gains in Malaysian palm oil and European rapeseed futures in overnight activity were also expected to provide some underlying support for canola.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada released their first supply/demand projections for the upcoming 2010/11 (Aug/Jul) crop year late Thursday. The market analysis division forecast canola ending stocks at the close of the new crop year at 800,000 tons, which would be roughly half the 1.650 million tons expected to carryover from the current 2009/10 crop year.

The Canadian dollar was trading near unchanged early in the day, providing little direction for canola values.

About 500 canola contracts had traded as of 8:50 CST.

Western barley futures were untraded and unchanged in overnight activity.

Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 8:50 CST: