By Phil Franz-Warkentin, MarketsFarm
WINNIPEG, Dec. 11 (MarketsFarm) – The ICE Futures canola market was stronger on Friday, posting the highest settlement price for the front-month contract since 2013.
Bullish chart signals, gains in the Chicago soy complex, and a slightly softer tone in the Canadian dollar all contributed to the advances in canola.
Solid end user demand, and the need to ration some of that buying interest going forward, was also supportive.
Weekly export data from the Canadian Grain Commission showed Canada exported 254,500 tonnes of canola during the week ended Dec. 6, taking the crop year-to-date total to 4.49 million tonnes. That’s up by about 1.3 million from the previous year.
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About 30,990 canola contracts traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 43,916 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 20,244 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were stronger on Friday, as market continued to digest Thursday’s updated supply/demand estimates from the United States Department of Agriculture.
While the 15 million bushel downward revision to U.S. soybean ending stocks wasn’t as big as average pre-report expectations, at 175 million bushels, the total carryout would still be relatively tight and well below last year’s ending stocks.
Weather conditions in South America remained at the forefront of the bean market. The moisture situation has improved with recent rains, but more precipitation will be needed going forward.
CORN held onto small gains, taking some direction from soybeans and wheat.
The USDA left its U.S. corn ending stocks projection unchanged at 1.7 billion bushels in yesterday’s report, but did lower its world stocks forecast by 2.5 million tonnes.
South American weather conditions were also being followed closely by corn traders, with forecasts calling for thunderstorm activity in some dry corn growing regions of Argentina.
WHEAT futures were up sharply on Friday, with the biggest gains in the winter wheats, as investors continued to react to Thursday’s downward revisions to U.S. and world wheat ending stocks forecasts from the USDA.
Talk that Russia was considering raising its export taxes on wheat in an effort to limit exports and shore up domestic supplies added to the gains in wheat, as more global demand could shift to the U.S.
