Winnipeg, MB, Dec. 5, 2014

ICE Futures Canada canola contracts were up sharply on Friday, taking back nearly all of the losses posted over the past week as the market saw a corrective bounce.

Chart-based speculative buying interest was a feature in canola, with some buy stops likely hit on the way up, according to participants. Gains in the CBOT soy complex and a weaker tone in the Canadian dollar were also both favourable for crush margins, which helped bring in some solid demand from domestic processors, said traders.

A lack of significant farmer selling, as producers are thought to be holding out until the New Year, was also supportive.

However, profit-taking at the highs did come forward to temper the gains.

The larger-than-expected canola production estimate released by Statistics Canada on Thursday was also a bearish factor in the background, as the larger crop will help loosen the supply/demand fundamentals going forward.

About 36,333 canola contracts were traded on Friday, which compares with Thursday when 38,015 contracts changed hands. Spreading accounted for 22,924 of the contracts traded.

Milling wheat, durum, and barley were all untraded.

Settlement prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.

                          Price      Change
Canola            Jan     422.70    up 10.00
                  Mar     420.90    up 10.00
                  May     423.30    up 10.60
Milling Wheat     Mar     238.00    unch
                  May     241.00    unch
Durum             Mar     357.50    unch
                  May     357.50    unch
Barley            Mar     177.00    unch
                  May     179.00    unch
     Spread trade prices are in Canadian dollars and the volume
represents the number of spreads:
Months        Prices                      Volume
Canola
Jan/Mar       1.50 over to 2.30 over        6768
Jan/May       0.60 under to 0.40 over       1169
Jan/Jul       1.80 under to 1.20 under        85
Mar/May       2.50 under to 1.60 under      2113
Mar/Jul       3.80 under to 3.30 under        32
Mar/Nov       1.80 under                       2
May/Jul       1.60 under to 0.50 under      1149
Jul/Nov       1.90 over to 4.10 over         144

Commodity News Service