Canola futures ended with modest losses on Thursday, ahead of the Statistics Canada acreage report.
To be released at 8:30 am EST, the StatsCan report will update the federal agency’s March acreage numbers, which showed new-crop canola intentions at 21.6 million acres, down 1.7% from a year earlier. Canola prices have strengthened from the spring, but China has since also levied retaliatory tariffs of 100% on imports of Canadian canola oil and meal. Trade opinion is mixed on whether the report will revise canola acres higher or lower compared to the March estimate.
Pressure on canola today came from strength in the Canadian dollar, which touched a 9-day high against its American counterpart. Chicago soybean oil and palm oil closed higher today, but soybeans and European rapeseed were lower.
November canola was down $3.10 at $711.50, and January dropped $2.90 to $720.10.