Soybeans set for first weekly loss in six on LatAm rains

SINGAPORE: Chicago soybean futures slid more than 1% on Friday, with the market poised for its first weekly decline in more than a month, as rains in South American key growing areas eased worries about global supply.

Corn and wheat prices were also set for weekly drop.

FUNDAMENTALS

The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) most-active soybean contract fell 4.5% this week, after closing firmer for the last five weeks. The market was down 1.2% at $13.52-1/4 a bushel, as of 0134 GMT.

• Corn dropped 2.5% so far this week, its first decline in seven weeks while wheat has lost 3.4% this week after ending the previous week on a positive note.

  • Argentine soybean and corn planting sped forward over the last week, helped by rain that moistened fields parched by months of dry weather, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said on Thursday.

  • More moisture was needed over the short term to ensure good yields for the 2020/21 crop, the exchange said in a report.

  • Losses in soybean market were limited by private sales of 136,000 tonnes of US cargoes to China and 163,290 tonnes to Mexico, both for shipment in the 2020/21 season, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

  • Corn also benefited from export sales, as the USDA reported private sales of 336,500 tonnes of the US corn to unknown destinations for shipment in the 2020/21 season.

  • Ukrainian milling wheat export prices exceeded $300 per tonne on Wednesday, supported by a sharp upward trend in Russia, analyst APK-Inform said on Thursday.

  • Russia said the country's wheat export prices rose sharply last week ahead of a new export tax imposed by one of the world's largest wheat exporters from mid-February.