Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) canola futures closed higher on Thursday, with double-digit increases in the old crop months and slight gains for the new crop positions.
Spillover came from sharp upticks in global crude oil prices, which bolstered edible oils. That generated significant advances in Chicago soybeans and soyoil, as well the nearby May contract in European rapeseed. However, the remaining rapeseed positions remained lower, with losses in Malaysian palm oil and Chicago soymeal.
Come Sunday, Canadian Pacific Railway could bring its Canadian rail operations to a stop should the company and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference fail to reach a new agreement. CP Rail would then lockout the union’s 3,000 locomotive engineers, conductors, plus rail and yard workers.
At mid-afternoon, the Canadian dollar was stronger with the loonie at 79.11 U.S. cents compared Wednesday’s close of 78.61.
There were 15,563 contracts traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 14,643 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 5,610 contracts traded.
Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric tonne.
Price Change
Canola May 1,130.20 up 16.30
Jul 1,097.30 up 9.90
Nov 933.00 up 1.20
Jan 932.30 up 1.10
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) were stronger on Thursday, due to spillover from a spike in global crude oil prices.
The United States Department of Agriculture issued its export sales report for the week ended March 10. It showed old crop soybeans at 1.25 million tonnes, which was down 43 per cent from the previous week, while new crop came in at 477,000 tonnes. Soymeal sales of 147,400 tonnes fell 53 per cent on the week and soyoil was up 36 per cent at 22,600 tonnes.
Commodity firm Allendale Inc. forecast U.S. soybean plantings for this spring are to be 89.28 million acres, up 2.4 per cent from the USDA’s estimate for last year.
Brazil is said to be in a position of possibly running out of soybeans for export come September.
The Argentine government is reportedly weighing a hike in soyoil and soymeal as to help contain inflation in the country.
CORN futures were stronger on Thursday, riding a wave of spillover from soybeans and wheat.
A report estimated that approximately 15 million tonnes of corn might not be exported from Black Sea ports due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the associated economic sanctions against Russia.
The USDA said corn export sales comprised of nearly 1.84 million tonnes of old crop, which were down 14 per cent, and new crop came in at 204,000 tonnes.
Allendale has placed 2022 U.S. corn plantings at 92.42 million acres, for a dip of one per cent compared to those last year.
WHEAT futures were stronger on Thursday, recovering a fair chunk of yesterday’s losses as Russia dashed the slim hopes of a ceasefire with Ukraine.
Similar to corn, there is said to be 15 million tonnes of wheat in Black Sea ports that’s unable to exported. Meanwhile, spring planting is reported to be underway in Ukraine.
India said it wants to become a leading exporter of wheat to help fill the void currently left by Ukraine and Russia.
Mixed precipitation is in the forecast for crop-growing areas of the U.S. over the next few days. Rain is expected from northern Illinois to the Gulf Coast.
The USDA reported old crop wheat sales fell 53 per cent at 145,900 tonnes, while new crop sales amounted to 325,600 tonnes.
Allendale projected 48.89 million acres of U.S. wheat are to be seeded in 2022, for 4.7 per cent increase over last year. The firm pegged winter wheat acres at 34.62 million, with 12.45 million for spring wheat and durum at 1.82 million.
