WINNIPEG (Dow Jones)--Canola contracts on the ICE Futures Canada platform finished the session lower, with much of the downward price action seen throughout the day associated with a strong Canadian dollar and the advancing harvest operations in western Canada, market watchers said.
Some position-evening was evident ahead of Tuesday's supply/demand reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Wednesday's closure of the ICE Canada trading platform for Remembrance Day.
Aggressive selling by grain companies took canola futures down, with some of that interest spurred on by the good progress made in the harvest over the weekend across the three prairie provinces, brokers said.
A strong Canadian dollar, which makes it more expensive to buy canola, helped to weigh on values.
Adding to the bearish price sentiment in canola was the uncertainty surrounding Canada's ability to move canola to China after Nov. 15 because of the implementation of restrictions on canola with blackleg disease. Talks between Chinese and Canadian government officials are continuing, but few details have been made available on the progress of those discussions, brokers said.
Some light chart-based liquidation orders also surfaced during the session, which helped to undermine canola values.
The losses in canola, however, were limited in part by sharp gains in CBOT soybean and soyoil futures. Some light domestic crusher demand and some short-covering ahead of the USDA reports Tuesday morning also provided some underlying support for canola, brokers said.
Spreading of the January/March contracts was a feature of the trade in canola and helped to augment volume.
There were an estimated 12,847 canola contracts traded Monday, up from 8,660 during the previous session. Of the contracts traded, 2,064 were spread-related.
Western barley futures were unchanged and untraded during the session. Some underlying support came from the gains posted by CBOT corn futures, brokers said.
No barley contracts changed hands during the session. On Friday, 63 barley contracts were traded.
Prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.
Settlement Prices Change
Canola
Jan 385.20 Dn 1.50
Mar 391.20 Dn 1.20
May 395.90 Up 0.30
Western Barley
Jan 156.90 Unchanged
Mar 157.90 Unchanged
Spread trade prices are in Can dollars and the volume represents the number of spreads:
Months Prices Volume
Canola Jan/Mar 5.70-6.70 947
Jan/May 7.90-10.90 10
Jan/Jul 11.70-17.10 44
Jan/Nov unavailable 1
Mar/May 3.00-4.70 30
-By Dwayne Klassen, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires; (204)-947-1700; resnews@shawbiz.ca
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-09-09 1539ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
