US soyabean futures fell on Wednesday in the second straight day of declines as investors evened out positions and locked in profits from monthly gains, traders said. Corn and wheat futures, on track for monthly losses, edged higher on support from a mild round of bargain buying.
Soyabeans fell after trading higher during the overnight trading session as speculators unwound some bullish bets they made during the past few months. "Realistically, it is a little bit of month end position squaring," said Bill Gentry a broker at Risk Management Commodities. "The funds were pretty long the bean market and there is not much incentive to push them higher just yet."
At 10:55 am CST (1655 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade January soyabean futures were down 9 cents at $10.33-1/2 a bushel. Traders shrugged off fresh signs that export demand for soyabeans remained robust. The US Agriculture Department on Wednesday morning said that private exporters reported the sale of 123,000 tonnes of soyabeans for delivery to China during the 2016/17 marketing year. It was the first spot sale since November 18.
The soyabean market also ignored sharp gains in crude oil prices, which typically are supportive to soyabeans. Oil prices rose more than 8 percent on Wednesday after Saudi Arabia's oil minister said Opec members meeting in Vienna were close to a deal on a crude oil production cut, with non-Opec members also likely to reduce output.
CBOT March corn futures were up 1 cent at $3.50 a bushel while CBOT March soft red winter wheat was 2-1/4 cents higher at $4.11 a bushel. Corn also saw support from a forecast from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Tuesday that US farmers plan to cut their corn sowings and raise soyabean plantings in the upcoming marketing year.
"Wheat and corn are also supported by the crude oil rise today but the background fundamentals in both remain heavy, with both facing large supplies after big crops and only lacklustre demand," Rabobank senior commodity analyst Graydon Chong said. Weak export demand for US wheat kept gains in check. Egypt's state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), bought 240,000 tonnes of Russian wheat in a tender on Tuesday. There were no US supplies offered. For the month, corn futures have fallen 1.3 percent, wheat futures have fallen 1.2 percent and soyabean futures have risen 2.1 percent.
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