ICE Canadian canola traded lower Thursday as crusher buying eased and pressure mounted from a stronger Canadian dollar and weaker crude oil prices, traders said. The July canola contract fell $1.90 to close at $477.80 on volume of 5,890 contracts while new-crop November dropped $1 to $477.90, with 5,640 contracts traded; January weakened $1.20 to $481.90 on volume of 1,150.
The July-November spread traded 1,996 times between $1.70 over and $1.90 under. Crushers are buying less because of a sharp drop in crush margins since last week, but funds supported the market by buying between 300 and 700 contracts, traders said. Traders continue to watch the weather. Saskatchewan, the largest-producing province for canola, said Thursday that overall seeding is 46 percent complete, well behind the five-year pace of 61 percent. Canola seeding is 37 percent complete.
Chicago Board of Trade July soyabeans gained 6 US cents to settle at $11.75 a bushel. Pressure came from both crude oil futures and the Canadian dollar. At 1:14 pm CDT (1614 GMT), light crude oil was down US $1.14 to US $60.90 per barrel. The Canadian dollar was trading between $1.1375 and $1.1381 to the US dollar or 87.89 US cents, up slightly from Wednesday's close of $1.1404 to the US dollar or 87.69 US cents.