SINGAPORE: Chicago soybeans firmed on Thursday, with the market trading close to last session’s two-month high, as strong Chinese demand and Brazilian planting delays supported prices.
Wheat fell, giving up some of the previous session’s gains, while corn eased.
“There is improved demand for US beans, which is supporting prices at these levels,” said one Singapore-based trader at an international trading company that sells beans to China.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 0.2% to $13.67-3/4 a bushel, as of 0302 GMT, and not far from its highest since Sept. 6 of $13.84-1/2 a bushel reached on Wednesday.
Wheat gave up 1.1% to $5.86 a bushel and corn dipped 0.3% to $4.74-1/2 a bushel.
Chinese importers bought at least five more US soybean cargoes on Wednesday in a second day of active buying after booking their largest purchases in months a day earlier.
The purchases, containing some 300,000 metric tons of the oilseed, were for shipment from the US Gulf Coast and Pacific Northwest ports between December and March, they added.
Chicago soybean futures slumped to a 22-month low in October on US harvest pressure and weak export demand.
But futures have been trending upward as erratic weather has caused problems in the world’s No. 1 exporter Brazil and demand for US cargoes underpinning the market.
Wheat rallied on Wednesday on renewed concerns about the Black Sea export corridor after Ukrainian officials said a Russian missile damaged a Liberia-flagged civilian vessel entering a Black Sea port in the Odesa region.
Heavy rains in recent weeks came too late for Argentina’s wheat harvest, with the Rosario Grains exchange cutting its 2023/24 forecast by 0.8 million metric tons on Wednesday.
The new forecast drops Argentina’s estimated wheat harvest to 13.5 million tons, only slightly above the 11.5 million tons brought in during the 2022/23 season, which suffered the worst drought in the country’s history.
Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT corn, soybean, soyoil, soymeal and wheat futures contracts on Wednesday, traders said.
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