ICE Canada Review: Fund/Export demand lifts canola

Some light position evening ahead of Friday’s latest round of supply/demand balance sheets from the USDA was a feature of the activity.

Some of the fresh speculative fund demand was stimulate by supportive chart signals, traders said. Speculation that a major export sale of Canadian canola oil has been made over the past day or two, further enhanced the price gains seen in canola. Exporters, however, were unable to confirm any fresh sales.

Early strength in canola came from the new highs established in Malaysian palm oil and European rapeseed futures overnight, brokers said.

The upward price action seen in CBOT soyoil futures also encouraged some of the buying that surfaced in canola. Solid domestic processor demand contributed to the advances in canola, brokers said.

The downswing in the value of the Canadian dollar also helped to prop up canola futures.

The upside in canola was tempered by profit-taking as well as by scale up hedge selling by grain companies, traders said. Declines in CBOT soybean futures during the day also helped to restrict the price gains seen in canola.

Some good volume totals were seen in canola Tuesday with the rolling of positions by fund accounts behind some of that action, brokers said.

There were an estimated 17,462 canola contracts traded Tuesday, up slightly from the 17,264 contracts that changed hands during the previous session. Of the contracts traded Tuesday, 8,832 were spread related.

Western barley futures were steady with light commercial end-user demand behind the volume total Tuesday, brokers said.

Western barley futures were unchanged but saw 2 contracts trade. On Monday, no western barley contracts changed hands.