North American Grain/Oilseed Review: Canola jumps, weakness in grains

Glacier FarmMedia | MarketsFarm – Canola futures on the Intercontinental Exchange rose to start the week after the resumption of trade negotiations between Canada and the United States was announced.

An analyst said canola also found support after testing the 50-day average last week. Dry weather in some parts of the Prairies and speculation over canola’s inclusion in new U.S. biofuel mandates were also supportive.

Chicago soyoil was higher, but European rapeseed and Malaysian palm oil were lower. Crude oil also showed modest declines after news reports said OPEC+ was considering another output hike at the start of August.

At mid-afternoon, the Canadian dollar was up one-quarter of a U.S. cent compared to Friday’s close. Canadian markets will be closed on Tuesday due to Canada Day.

Updated acreage and stocks data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture provided little direction. Canola area in the country was down 13 per cent on the year at 2.388 million acres.

There were 45,524 canola contracts traded on Monday, which compares with Friday when 51,474 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 17,822 of the contracts traded.

The USDA released its quarterly grain stocks and acreage reports earlier today, but gave very little influence on the Chicago Board of Trade.

September WHEAT contracts extended their respective downturns on Monday, falling to their lowest values since May.

Planted U.S. wheat area was estimated at 45.478 million acres, higher than the March estimate but the smallest in 55 years. Winter wheat came in at 33.325 million acres, spring wheat totaled 10.045 million and durum was at 2.108 million.

Meanwhile, U.S. wheat stocks came out to be 851 million bushels as of June 1, 155 million more than one year ago.

The USDA also reported 434,538 tonnes of wheat were shipped during the week ended June 26, more than 70 per cent above the previous week’s total. Marketing year exports this year stand at 1.279 million tonnes, down 7.9 per cent from last year.

Argus cut its Ukrainian wheat production estimate by 1.82 million tonnes at 21.88 million.

September CORN erased some of its Friday gains, marking its sixth negative session over the last seven. It also stayed above the contract low set on Thursday.

U.S. corn acres were slightly lower than the March estimate at 95.203 million, slightly below trade expectations but five per cent above last year’s figure.

U.S. corn stocks as of June 1 were 4.643 billion bushels, above the average trade estimate but down 354 million from one year ago.

A total of 1.37 million tonnes of U.S. corn were shipped for export last week, down 8.9 per cent from the previous week and down nearly 65 per cent from the same week last year. Marketing year shipments are at 54.944 million tonnes, 29.3 per cent more than one year ago.

AgRural estimated Brazil’s corn crop at 130.6 million tonnes, up 1.9 million tonnes from its previous estimate.

August SOYBEANS ended the day lower after trading at a range of 21 U.S. cents per bushel. The September contract traded at a similar range but ended the day one cent higher.

Estimated soybean plantings in the U.S. were 83.38 million acres, lower than trade estimates and the USDA’s March estimate. It was also more than three million acres less than what was planted last year.

Soybean stocks as of June 1 were up 38 million bushels from last year and surpassed average trade guesses at 1.008 billion.

U.S. soybean exports last week were 224,787 tonnes, up 11.4 per cent from the previous week but down nearly 30 per cent from last year. Marketing year shipments were 45.851 million tonnes, up 10.3 per cent from one year ago.