* Trade was active, as it has been all week, with volume topping 37,000 contracts.
* Slow farmer sales and firm cash market reflected in bull-spreading, with nearby futures contracts gaining on back months.
* March canola settled $5.40 higher at $567.70 per tonne, after reaching $569.50, the highest spot price since Sept. 12. Volume totaled 5,677 contracts. The contract ended the week up nearly 3.6 percent, its sixth straight weekly rise and the largest since December.
* Most-active May ended $2.40 higher at $564.20 a tonne on volume of 16,928 contracts.
* The March/May spread traded 5,150 times at even money to $4 over (premium March).
* CBOT soybeans settled firm on export demand from China and a foreast for US soybean inventories to tighten in marketing year 2012/13.
* USDA at its annual outlook forum projected that US 2012/13 soybean ending stocks would drop to 205 million bushels, from 275 million in 2011/12.
* Canola shrugs off weak close in MATIF rapeseed, with May rapeseed falling more than 1 percent.
* As of 2:30 p.m. CST (2030 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading at $0.9997 against the US dollar or US$1.0003, off slightly from Thursday's North American session close at $0.9976, or US$1.0024.
* US light crude oil rose nearly 2 percent to settle at US$109.77 per barrel.