The ICE Futures canola market was stronger on Thursday, seeing a continuation of Wednesday’s rally amid ideas the oilseed remains underpriced compared to its product values.
Gains in Chicago soyoil and continued weakness in the Canadian dollar contributed to the strength in canola, as crush margins remain historically wide.
European rapeseed futures were also stronger, although Malaysian palm oil and Chicago soybeans were slightly softer.
The advancing Prairie harvest remained a bearish influence in the background.
About 29,782 canola contracts traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 42,036 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 19,866 of the contracts traded.
SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were weaker on Thursday, as soft export data and losses in soymeal countered any support from a rally in soyoil.
Weekly United States soybean export sales of 446,000 tonnes reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture were roughly half of what was sold the previous week, coming in below trade estimates.
The International Grains Council lowered their estimate for world soybean production in 2022/23 by two million tonnes, to 387 million. However, that would still be up by about 10 per cent on the year.
CORN was higher, taking some direction from wheat.
The IGC lowered their estimate for world corn production by 11 million tonnes, now pegging the crop at 1.168 billion tonnes. If realized, that would be down by 51 million tonnes from 2021/22.
Weekly U.S. corn export sales came in at only 182,000 tonnes, which was well below the low end of trade guesses.
WHEAT continued higher for the third straight session, with the largest gains in Minneapolis spring wheat.
World wheat production was estimated at 792 million tonnes by the IGC, which was up by 14 million from an earlier estimate and 10 million tonnes above last year’s crop.
Weekly U.S. wheat export sales came in at 183,000 tonnes, below expectations.
