By Phil Franz-Warkentin, MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, March 14 (MarketsFarm) – The ICE Futures canola market continued its downward slide on Tuesday, with futures hitting their weakest levels in over a year. Chart-based speculative selling was a feature, as bearish technical signals had fund traders adding to their large short positions.
Losses in European rapeseed and Malaysian palm oil accounted for some spillover selling pressure in the canola market, with a firmer tone in the Canadian dollar also weighing on prices.
However, Chicago soyoil showed a recovery off nearby lows, which provided some spillover support.
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Ideas that canola is looking oversold also underpinned the market, with the losses likely bringing in some scale-down end user buying as well.
About 34,452 canola contracts traded on Tuesday, which compares with Monday when 32,876 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 23,324 of the contracts traded.
All three WHEAT futures markets in the United States posted solid gains on Tuesday, as the winter crop breaks dormancy and many parts of the U.S. Plains remain on the dry side.
Weekly crop condition ratings from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed winter wheat in Kansas steady at 17 per cent good to excellent, while neighbouring Oklahoma fell to 30 per cent from 39 per cent the previous week. The Texas crop was already 21 per cent headed, ahead of the 11 per cent average, with condition ratings in the state down two points, at 17 per cent good to excellent.
Talks to extend the Black Sea grain corridor for Ukrainian exports are underway this week, keeping some caution in the wheat market.
SOYBEANS traded to both sides of unchanged, uncovering some chart support to the downside in early activity and moving higher in most months.
The ongoing dryness concerns in Argentina remained a supportive influence, as forecasters continue to lower their production estimates for the country.
Brazil’s soybean harvest is estimated to be just over 50 per cent complete, with exports out of the country reportedly starting to displace corn movement already.
CORN moved up in sympathy with wheat and soybeans.
Seeding operations are underway in the southern U.S., with 30 per cent of the Texas corn crop and 78 per cent of Louisiana’s corn already in the ground.
The planting of Brazil’s second corn crop is also moving forward, at roughly three quarters complete, according to reports.
Meanwhile, private estimates on the size of Argentina’s corn crop continue to be revised lower.
The USDA announced private export sales of 612,000 tonnes of corn to China this morning.
