Winnipeg, MB, Aug. 13, 2014

ICE Futures Canada canola held range-bound on Wednesday, settling near unchanged as the market saw some consolidation after recent declines.

Continued weakness in CBOT soybeans, following Tuesday's record large soybean production estimate from the USDA, was a bearish influence overhanging the Canadian market. However, canola held it's own relative to soybeans as supportive technical signals and a lack of significant farmer or fund selling helped underpin the futures, according to participants.

Mounting dryness concerns in some parts of Western Canada provided some further support, as traders continue to try and get a handle on the size of the canola crop. Statistics Canada releases its own production estimates on August 21.

About 15,558 canola contracts were traded on Wednesday, which compares with Tuesday when 13,840 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 3,430 of the contracts traded.

Milling wheat, durum, and barley were all untraded.

Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.

                          Price      Change
Canola            Nov     435.40    unch
                  Jan     440.20    dn 0.20
                  Mar     442.00    dn 0.30
Milling Wheat     Oct     198.00    unch
                  Dec     203.00    unch
Durum             Oct     250.00    unch
                  Dec     256.00    unch
Barley            Oct     136.00    unch
                  Dec     138.00    unch
     Spread trade prices are in Canadian dollars and the volume
represents the number of spreads:
Months        Prices                      Volume
Canola
Nov/Jan       5.00 under to 4.50 under       654
Nov/May       4.60 under to 3.80 under       335
Nov/Jul       1.00 under to 0.80 under         7
Nov/Nov       3.50 over to 3.70 over           3
Jan/Mar       2.30 under to 1.60 under       305
Mar/May       2.50 over to 2.80 over         279
May/Jul       3.00 over to 3.70 over          51
Jul/Nov       4.50 over to 5.40 over          81

Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service