North American Grain/Oilseed Review: Canola mostly higher in thin trade

The ICE Futures canola market was mostly higher at Thursday’s close, after trading to both sides of unchanged in thin and choppy activity with markets in the United States closed for Thanksgiving.

Malaysian palm oil and European rapeseed futures were both lower in overnight trade, which put some spillover pressure on the Canadian oilseed. Ideas that canola is said to be looking overpriced at current levels also weighed on values.

However, the underlying fundamentals of tight supplies and the need to ration demand remained supportive. Speculators also continue to hold large net long positions in canola, keeping them on the buy side.

Monthly crush data released by Statistics Canada showed that 876,127 tonnes of canola were crushed in October, which was down by about 55,000 tonnes from the same month the previous year, but up by nearly 100,000 tonnes from September. The total canola crush through the first three months of the 2021/22 crop year, at 2.316 million tonnes, is only down by nine per cent from the 2.547 million tonnes crushed during the same time the previous year.

About 4,433 canola contracts traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 23,576 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 3,262 of the contracts traded.

Futures markets in the United States were closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. They will reopen on Friday for a shortened session.

With the U.S. soybean and corn harvests wrapping up for the season, and most of the winter wheat in the ground, attention will be shifting towards South American crop prospects over the next few weeks.

Early expectations are for large crops out of the continent, but with a long growing season ahead there will be plenty of weather-related movement in the futures.

The Western Producer

Tags: markets, rapeseed, palm oil, canola market, futures