North American grain/oilseed review: Canola narrowly mixed at Monday’s close

By Phil Franz-Warkentin

Glacier FarmMedia MarketsFarm — The ICE Futures canola market was narrowly mixed at Monday’s close, finishing well off its session lows.

Chicago soyoil, European rapeseed and Malaysian palm oil futures were all softer to start the week, which put some pressure on the Canadian oilseed. However, gains in crude oil and Chicago soybeans provided support.

Solid end user demand and a lack of significant farmer selling helped underpin the canola market, as exports continue to run well ahead of last year’s pace.

There were an estimated 38,995 contracts traded on Monday, which compares with Friday when 47,842 contracts traded. Spreading accounted for 23,774 of the contracts traded.

SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade held onto small gains on Monday, with positioning ahead of Tuesday’s United States presidential election behind some of the activity.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced private export sales of 132,000 tonnes of soybeans to unknown destinations this morning.

Weekly export inspections showed 2.159 million tonnes of soybeans exported from the U.S. during the week ended Oct. 31, which was down by 18 per cent from the previous week. However, marketing year-to-date shipments at 12.8 million tonnes were running about 3.5 per cent ahead of the year ago pace.

Farmers in Brazil were making good seeding progress, as moisture conditions have improved recently, with planting now slightly ahead of normal at 54 per cent complete, according to reports out of the country. Private forecasters have been upping their production estimates for Brazil.

CORN was underpinned by solid export demand, although the upside was limited.

The USDA announced flash sales of 150,000 tonnes of corn to Mexico this morning, with an additional 120,000 tonnes to unknown destinations.

Weekly U.S. corn export inspections were down by about seven per cent from the previous week, at 779,000 tonnes. However, crop-year-to-date exports were running about 33 per cent ahead of last year’s pace at 7.4 million tonnes.

WHEAT futures traded to both sides of unchanged, with the bias higher in the most active months at the close.

Recent precipitation across the dry U.S. Plains has helped improve the crop prospects for winter wheat in the area, putting some pressure on values.

Weekly U.S. wheat export inspections of just under 200,000 tonnes were down by 34 per cent from the previous week, with year-to-date shipments of 9.75 million tonnes in line with what moved the same time a year ago.