North American Grain/Oilseed Review: Canola weaker, but off lows

The ICE Futures canola market was weaker at Thursday’s close, but well off its session lows as investors reacted to a relatively neutral monthly supply/demand report from the United States Department of Agriculture.

The World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report included only minor adjustments to the global numbers, with the U.S. balance sheet left unchanged on the month. Soyoil futures finished lower following the neutral report, while soybeans and meal both posted gains.

Speculative profit-taking contributed to the declines in canola, although the underlying fundamentals of tight supplies remained supportive on the other side. A weaker tone in the Canadian dollar also helped temper the losses.

The most active January contract dipped below the psychological C$1,000 per tonne mark at one point during the session, but managed to settle well above that level.

About 21,075 canola contracts traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 27,642 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 11,828 of the contracts traded.

SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were stronger at Thursday’s close, after trading to both sides of unchanged in choppy activity.

The United States Department of Agriculture left the balance sheet for U.S. soybeans unchanged from November in its monthly supply/demand report, with projected ending stocks steady at 340 million bushels. The world carryout was down by 1.8 million tonnes, at 102 million tonnes. That came as somewhat of a surprise as general expectations had been for a slight increase on the month.

Weekly U.S. soybean export sales, at 1.6 million tonnes, were solid. The USDA also announced private export sales of 280,000 tonnes of soybeans to unknown destinations this morning, with delivery evenly split between the current marketing year and next year.

CORN futures traded to both sides of unchanged throughout the session, finishing higher in the most active nearby months.

The domestic supply/demand numbers for U.S. corn were also left unchanged on the month, with projected carryout stocks steady at 1.493 billion bushels.

World corn carryout was raised by 1.1 million tonnes from November, at 305.5 million tonnes.

Weekly U.S. corn export sales came in at the top end of trade guesses, at just over a million tonnes.

WHEAT was lower across the board, pressured by upward revisions to world and U.S. carryout estimates.

U.S. wheat ending stocks for the year were raised to 598 million bushels, from 583 million in November.

World wheat carryout topped trade guesses, up by 2.4 million tonnes from November at 278.2 million tonnes.

The Western Producer

Tags: soybean futures, corn futures, canola market, wheat futures, soyoil futures