Winnipeg, MB, Aug. 15, 2014

ICE Futures Canada canola were weaker on Friday, but managed to settle well off the contract lows hit during the session as some profit-taking came forward late in the day.

Losses in the outside vegetable oil markets, including CBOT soyoil and Malaysian palm oil, contributed to the bearish tone in canola, according to participants. The soft vegoil markets are cutting into Canadian crush margins, making canola seed not as attractively priced as it once was.

Some sell-stops were likely hit on the way down, contributing to the declines, although canola did manage to find some support at the lows.

A lack of significant farmer selling given the continued uncertainty over the size of the Canadian crop also helped limit the losses. Dryness concerns across much of the Prairies were also supportive, although a trader noted that it is starting to get too late for canola to see any benefit from more moisture at this stage of development.

About 18,944 canola contracts were traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 18,784 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 5,464 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     429.50    dn 2.90
                  Jan     434.10    dn 3.40
                  Mar     436.10    dn 3.60
Milling Wheat     Oct     200.00    unch
                  Dec     205.00    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       5.30 under to 4.50 under     1,498
Nov/Mar       7.40 under to 7.20 under        46
Nov/May       5.00 under to 3.70 under       315
Jan/Mar       2.50 under to 1.80 under       437
Jan/May       0.20 over                       22
Mar/May       2.50 over to 2.70 over         269
May/Jul       3.00 over to 3.80 over          63
Jul/Nov       0.80 over to 4.30 over          82

Commodity News Service