Winnipeg, MB, Nov. 6, 2014

ICE Futures Canada canola market settled higher on Thursday, as solid end user demand and a lack of significant farmer selling provided support.

The nearby canola contracts remain at an inverse with the more deferred positions, which highlights the strong nearby demand from the country, said participants. Exporters and domestic crushers both have commitments to fill, but farmers are reluctant sellers as they move to the sidelines for the winter. As a result the market was said to be trying to encourage more farmer sales.

A firmer tone in CBOT soybeans, weakness in the Canadian dollar, and some light speculative short-covering were also supportive for canola.

However, CBOT soyoil and Malaysian palm oil were both weaker, which did temper the upside potential in canola. The record large US crop prospects and improving weather conditions in South America also put some pressure on values.

About 28,503 canola contracts were traded on Thursday, which compares with Wednesday when 20,239 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for about 10,896 of the contracts traded.

Milling wheat and durum were both untraded, but barley saw some light activity and moved higher.

Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.

                          Price      Change
Canola            Jan     436.70    up 1.90
                  Mar     433.20    up 2.30
                  May     432.80    up 2.00
Milling Wheat     Dec     219.00    unch
                  Mar     226.00    unch
Durum             Dec     356.50    unch
                  Mar     357.50    unch
Barley            Dec     146.00    up 6.00
                  Mar     143.00    unch
    Spread trade prices are in Canadian dollars and the volume
represents the number of spreads:
Months        Prices                      Volume
Canola
Nov/Jan       16.00 over                      14
Jan/Mar       2.50 over to 6.50 over        2309
Jan/May       3.40 over to 5.70 over         757
Jan/Jul       3.80 over to 7.60 over          25
Jan/Nov       12.90 over                       4
Mar/May       0.30 under to 1.00 over       1473
May/Jul       0.40 over to 1.50 over         732
Jul/Nov       2.60 over to 7.90 over         133
Nov/Jan       7.10 under                       1

 Commodity News Service