ICE Canadian canola futures closed lower Tuesday with soyabeans, as traders said swine flu concerns were still weighing on the beans and spilling over to canola. Despite the name "swine flu," the new strain is not infecting pigs and has not been detected in pigs, but any perception of a link to pigs could provoke a consumer backlash that would cut demand for pork and livestock feed like soyabeans.
"It's a snowball effect" on canola, one trader said. May canola closed $1.70 lower at $437.80 per tonne on a volume of 2,506 contracts; benchmark July dropped 50 cents to $440.50 on volume of 10,934; November fell $1.50 to $442 on 2,492 contracts. The May-July spread traded 2,067 times between $3 and 20 cents under; July-November traded 1,475 times from $2.80 to $1 under.
CBOT May soyabeans dropped 15-1/4 US cents to $9.89-1/2 a bushel amid talk of a slowdown in US export sales. At 13:37 CDT (1837 GMT), the Canadian dollar traded at C$1.2180 to C$1.2184 to the US dollar, or about 82.09 US cents, up slightly from Monday's close of C$1.2195 to the US dollar, or 82.00 U.S cents. Light crude oil continues to weigh on oilseeds. It was down 43 US cents at US $49.71 per barrel.