North American Grain/Oilseed review: Canola mostly higher

By Phil Franz-Warkentin

Glacier FarmMedia MarketsFarm – The ICE Futures canola market was mostly higher on Thursday, seeing a continuation of Wednesday’s corrective bounce off nearby lows.

Statistics Canada released updated acreage estimates pegging 2024/25 canola seedings in the country at 22.0 million acres. That was up from the March projection of 21.4 million acres and in line with the 22.1 million acres planted in 2023/24.

While the canola area came in above average trade expectations, the market response was muted with attention focused on weather conditions through the growing season.

Gains in European rapeseed provided spillover support for canola, although Chicago soybeans were softer and soyoil held near unchanged.

There were an estimated 67,353 contracts traded on Tuesday, which compares with Wednesday when 61,528 contracts traded. Spreading accounted for 26,324 of the contracts traded.

SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were weaker on Thursday, failing to hold onto overnight gains as soft weekly export demand and relatively favourable United States crop prospects weighed on values. Positioning ahead of the U.S. Department of Agriculture acreage and quarterly stocks reports out on Friday was a feature of the activity.

The USDA reported weekly U.S. soybean export sales of about 282,000 tonnes of old crop and an additional 102,000 tonnes of new crop business. coming in at the lower end of trade expectations.

Average trade guesses ahead of Friday’s report expect a small increase in U.S. soybean area from the 86.5 million acres forecast in March.

Canadian soybean area was pegged at 5.7 million acres by Statistics Canada this morning, up slightly from the 5.6 million acres grown last year.

Oilseed processing workers in Argentina started a strike action on Thursday over proposed changes to the country’s labour laws.

CORN was also pressured lower by poor exports and a lack of significant weather worries.

Weekly U.S. corn export sales of 542,000 tonnes of old crop and 140,000 tonnes of new crop business were at the lower end of trade expectations.

U.S. corn seedings are expected to be down on the year in Friday’s report, but likely slightly above the March estimates of 90.0 million acres.

WHEAT futures were up sharply, as end user bargain hunting finally came forward to provide support and weekly U.S. wheat export sales of 667,000 tonnes were well above trade expectations.

Total wheat area in Canada was estimated at 26.6 million acres by StatCan, down by about 1.5 per cent from both the March forecast and the year-ago level. However, wheat seedings would still be well above the five-year average of 25.2 million acres.