North American grain/oilseed review: Canola settles with small losses
By Phil Franz-Warkentin
Glacier FarmMedia MarketsFarm — The ICE Futures canola market settled with small losses on Wednesday after trading to both sides of unchanged.
The November contract ran into resistance at around C$620 per tonne, ending C$5 below that point.
The advancing canola harvest remained a bearish influence in the background, with generally warm and dry weather conditions across Western Canada allowing farmers to make good progress.
Chicago soyoil and Malaysian palm oil futures were both lower on the day, although European rapeseed and Chicago soybeans moved higher.
End user bargain hunting at the lows and speculative short covering provided support, helping keep the canola market in a narrow range.
There were an estimated 68,109 contracts traded on Wednesday, which compares with Tuesday when 77,918 contracts traded. Spreading accounted for 48,806 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade held onto small gains on Wednesday, seeing a modest correction amid ideas Tuesday’s losses were overdone.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture releases its monthly supply/demand estimates on Friday, and positioning ahead of the data was a feature of the activity.
Average trade guesses ahead of Friday’s report are generally for U.S. soybean yields to hold steady with the September forecast at 53.2 bushels per acre.
CORN was within a penny of unchanged at the close.
Opinions on U.S. corn yields are divided ahead of Friday’s USDA report, with some market participants now expecting to see lower yields as drier weather conditions have led to lighter bushel weights.
Forecasts call for warm and dry conditions across most of the Midwest over the next week, which should allow farmers to continue making good progress.
The USDA announced private export sales of 126,000 tonnes of corn to unknown destinations this morning.
Weekly US ethanol data showed a small increase in production of the renewable fuel, although stocks tightened.
WHEAT was underpinned by weather concerns in several wheat growing regions of the world, including Russia and France. U.S. winter wheat growing areas also remain on the dry side.
Algeria could buy as much as three million tonnes of Russian wheat this year, according to Russian trade officials in the North African country. Algeria recently filled a half million tonne tender primarily with Russian wheat, excluding any French wheat. France is usually a major supplier of wheat to Algeria, but a diplomatic dispute has severed that relationship for the time being.
