Winnipeg, MB, Sept. 4, 2014

ICE Futures Canada canola contracts were weaker on Thursday, hitting fresh contract lows in the process as declines in CBOT soybeans provided the catalyst for more speculative selling.

The November canola contract fell below support at C$415 per tonne in early activity, triggering sell-stops as fund traders added to their already very large short-positions, said participants.

There was some scale-down buying interest, but end users appeared content to watch the prices fall and were not aggressive on the buy side.

While the losses in CBOT soybeans were behind much of the spillover weakness in canola, gains in soyoil did help temper the Canadian declines to some extent, said traders.

Positioning ahead of Friday's Statistics Canada ending stocks report kept some caution in the market as well. In addition, persistent wet weather across much of Western Canada was leading to concerns over harvest delays and quality downgrades in some areas.

About 31,150 canola contracts were traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 26,296 contracts changed hands.

Milling wheat, durum, and barley were all untraded.

Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.

                          Price      Change
Canola            Nov     413.30    dn 5.10
                  Jan     418.90    dn 5.30
                  Mar     424.50    dn 5.90
Milling Wheat     Oct     197.00    unch
                  Dec     203.40    unch
Durum             Oct     250.00    unch
                  Dec     256.00    unch
Barley            Oct     124.00    unch
                  Dec     126.00    unch
     Spread trade prices are in Canadian dollars and the volume
represents the number of spreads:
Months        Prices                      Volume
Canola
Nov/Jan       6.20 under to 5.60 under     2,356
Nov/Mar       12.00 under to 11.80 under      87
Nov/May       16.00 under to 15.20 under     581
Nov/Jul       19.50 under to 19.40 under      72
Nov/Nov       19.10 under to 17.80 under      35
Jan/Mar       6.30 under to 5.30 under     3,814
Jan/May       10.30 under to 10.00 under     511
Jan/Jul       14.50 under to 13.90 under      40
Mar/May       5.00 under to 3.60 under     3,921
Mar/Jul       8.70 under                      10
May/Jul       4.70 under to 3.50 under       746
Jul/Nov       1.40 under to 2.80 over        422

Phil Franz-Warkentin, Commodity News Service