CHICAGO: ICE canola futures closed lower on Wednesday, with the most-active March contract retreating late in the session on technical selling and spill-over weakness from allied global vegetable oil futures, traders said. Most-active March canola settled down 70 cents at $864.00 per tonne while front-month January tumbled $8.50 to end at $859.00.

Traders said the drop in the spread was mainly technical as brokers liquidated positions ahead of the end of the year and the January contract’s expiration next month.Cash canola markets were quiet and fundamental news was scarce, they said.