By Phil Franz-Warkentin, MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, Dec. 16 (MarketsFarm) – The ICE Futures canola market was mixed at Friday’s close, with losses in the most-active front months and a firmer tone in the more deferred months.
Declines in crude oil and Chicago soyoil, along with general weakness in world equity markets accounted for some of the selling pressure that spilled into the canola market.
The Canadian dollar was slightly softer, trading near its weakest level of the past month, which provided some underlying support for canola.
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Solid end user demand also helped temper the declines, with weekly canola exports of 278,500 tonnes during the week ended Dec. 11 up by 18 per cent from the previous week, according to Canadian Grain Commission data.
About 23,361 canola contracts traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 26,898 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 16,046 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade moved higher to end the week on Friday, as gains in soymeal countered any bearish influence from the downturn in soyoil.
Soybean seeding in Argentina was pegged at 50 per cent done by the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange. That was well behind normal for this time of year of 68 per cent complete as the ongoing drought dissuades planting.
Yesterday’s disappointing monthly crush data remained a bearish influence, coming in well below trade estimates. However, at 179.1 million bushels, the crush pace was still the third largest for November on record.
CORN was traded to both sides of unchanged but moved lower with wheat and crude oil by the close.
Corn planting was also behind normal in Argentina, at 43 per cent done.
Weekly U.S. corn export sales of 959,000 tonnes reported yesterday were on the high end of expectations, with additional flash sales to Mexico also announced. However, there was no fresh business to report on Friday.
WHEAT was down across the board, pressured by a round of speculative profit-taking to end the week.
Only 10 per cent of Argentina’s wheat was rated good-to-excellent, well off the 60 per cent reported at the same time last year.
Long range forecasts call for below normal precipitation to persist across the U.S. Southern Plains, which should be keeping some weather premiums in the market.
The uncertain situation in Ukraine remained a feature in the background, as Russian strikes on the country’s infrastructure intensified.
