North American Grain/Oilseed Review: Canola takes back losses

The ICE Futures canola market was stronger on Thursday, recovering most of Wednesday’s losses amid ideas the selloff was overdone.

Tight old crop supplies and solid demand from domestic crushers provided underlying support, with speculative positioning behind much of the activity.

The gains in canola came despite losses in Chicago Board of Trade soyoil, as the spreads between the commodities saw some readjustment.

The ongoing conflict in Ukraine remained a key driver of the grains and oilseeds, with spring seeded crop acreage expected to be down sharply.

About 13,310 canola contracts traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 21,648 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 7,476 of the contracts traded.

SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were weaker on Thursday, with a general risk-off sentiment in the commodity markets behind some of the selling pressure.

Malaysian palm oil was down sharply on the day, which weighed on soyoil.

Weekly United States soybean export sales came in below expectations at 412,000 tonnes of old crop business and net cancellations of 13,000 tonnes for delivery next year. However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture also announced private export sales this morning of 318,200 tonnes of soybeans to unknown destinations.

CORN was also down with profit-taking after recent advances.

Weekly U.S. corn export sales of just under a million tonnes for movement during the current marketing year came in at the low end of trade guesses, with new crop sales of only 6,000 tonnes the smallest in six weeks.

The ongoing situation in Ukraine did remain supportive, as the country’s corn production is expected to be down sharply on the year.

WHEAT was weaker, with the largest losses in the winter wheats as the spreads with Minneapolis spring wheat saw some readjustment.

Weekly U.S. wheat export sales of about half a million tonnes of old and new crop business combined were in line with expectations.

Recent moisture for the Southern Plains accounted for some of the selling pressure in the winter wheats.

The Western Producer

Tags: oilseeds, soyoil, wheat futures, Market, canola, soybean futures, corn futures, Grains