| By Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service Canada |
| Jan. 26, 2012 |
| Winnipeg – Canola contracts traded on the ICE Futures Canada platform were stronger at 10:44 CST Thursday, taking some direction from the advances posted in the CBOT soy complex.Activity in the outside financial markets, along with continuing concerns over South American weather conditions, took soybeans higher on Thursday and some of that buying interest spilled into canola, according to participants.
Increasing concerns over dryness in western Canada heading into the 2012 growing season were also said to be providing some support for canola, with speculators and commercials both on the buy side. However, canola was running into technical resistance to the upside as prices neared the top end of their recent range. A trader said farmer hedges were picking up on any moves higher, as any producers who had been waiting to sell over the past couple of months were taking the opportunity to make some sales at the high end of the range. Relatively mild temperatures across western Canada were also encouraging more producer deliveries. A stronger tone in the Canadian dollar, which moved above parity with its US counterpart, was also bearish for canola. At 10:44 CST, about 13,000 canola contracts had changed hands, with spreading accounting for over 8,000 of the contracts traded. Milling wheat, durum, and barley futures were all untraded and unchanged at midday Thursday, although bids and offers were being posted in all three commodities. Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 10:44 CST: Price Change Canola Mar 528.70 up 4.30 May 534.60 up 4.50 Nov 512.00 up 5.00 Western Barley Mar 212.00 unch May 215.00 unch Milling Wheat Oct 260.50 unch Dec 265.50 unch Durum Oct 262.50 unch Dec 267.00 unch Barley Oct 171.00 unch Dec 175.00 unch |
