North American Grain/Oilseed Review: Uptrend continues in canola

WINNIPEG, March 8 (MarketsFarm) – The ICE Futures canola market was stronger on Monday, seeing a continuation of its months-long uptrend.

Gains in Chicago Board of Trade soybeans and soyoil provided some spillover support for canola, although the Canadian oilseed outpaced the United States market to the upside.

The most active May contract briefly touched the psychological C$800 per tonne level in overnight activity, but ran into resistance at the highs.

Cash bids were reportedly hitting record levels in Western Canada, which should be encouraging farmer sales.

About 21,008 canola contracts traded on Monday, which compares with Friday when 22,051 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 11,080 of the contracts traded.

SOYBEAN futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were stronger on Monday, touching their highest levels in nearly seven years at one point before settling with only small advances as profit-taking came forward to temper the gains.

Continued harvest delays in Brazil due to wet weather there, along with dryness cutting into soybean yield prospects in Argentina, remained a key driver in the soy market.

Positioning ahead of tomorrow’s United States Department of Agriculture monthly supply/demand report was a feature, with additional cuts to U.S. ending stocks projections expected.

Average trade guesses call for ending stocks of around 117 million bushels, which would be down by three million from the February forecast and well below last year’s carryout.

CORN futures were caught in a narrow range for most of the session, although the bias turned higher as delays seeding Brazil’s second corn crop provided some support.

Average trade guesses call for a slight downward revision to the 1.5 billion tonne U.S. corn carryout forecast by the USDA last month.

WHEAT futures were lower, as profit-taking came forward to weigh on prices after overnight gains.

Weekly U.S. wheat export inspections of just under half-a-million tonnes were up on both the week and compared to the year ago, with China a major destination.

The Western Producer

Tags: Brazil, soybean futures