North American Grain/Oilseed Review: Canola ends mixed ahead of weekend

The ICE Futures canola market was mixed on Friday, with strength in the nearby July contract and losses in the new crop months.

Tight old crop supplies and bullish chart signals kept the old crop contract well supported, although the bulk of the trade volumes have migrated to the more deferred months.

Ongoing seeding delays in the eastern Prairies due to excess moisture did provide some support for the canola market, but ideas that the moisture will be good for production in the long run kept values pointed lower on Friday. Losses in Chicago Board of Trade soyoil and other outside vegetable oil markets also weighed on prices.

Markets in the United States will be closed Monday, May 30, for Memorial Day while the canola market will trade its usual hours. Positioning ahead of weekend was a feature.

About 8,534 canola contracts traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 18,194 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 3,922 of the contracts traded.

SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were mostly stronger on Friday, with the front-month contract briefly hitting the highest level ever recorded by the July futures before running into some profit-taking resistance. Activity in the new crop months was more subdued, with November down slightly at the final bell.

Seeding delays in the northern growing regions of the United States remained supportive, forecasts calling for rains in Minnesota and the Dakotas likely to push soybean seeding in the region well into June.

Planting for about five to ten per cent of the U.S. soybean crop is up in the air, with a good window of warm and dry weather needed to get the intended acres in the ground.

CORN was higher, seeing a recovery to end the week as advances in wheat providing some additional support.

Corn had come under pressure over most of the past week and was thought to be due for a correction as traders squared positions
ahead of the Memorial Day long weekend.

Dryness concerns in Brazil and the possibility that some intended U.S. corn acres won’t go in the ground due to wet seeding conditions also underpinned the market.

Crude oil was up on the day, lending support to the ethanol-linked grain.

WHEAT was higher across the board to end the week.

Talk that Russia may allow some Ukrainian wheat exports through the Black Sea had weighed on wheat prices earlier in the week, but the humanitarian corridor is conditional on the easing of sanctions which Ukraine and its allies are unlikely to agree to.

The slow pace of spring wheat seeding in the northern U.S. and eastern Canadian Prairies was supportive.

Tags: corn futures, wheat futures, Market, losses, old crop, canola, soybean futures