CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures finished higher on short covering on Tuesday as the market extended a rebound from a four-year low reached last week.
Corn futures also advanced, while wheat futures slipped before US grain markets shut on Wednesday for the Christmas holiday. Soy futures came under pressure recently from forecasts for record-large output in Brazil, which is the world’s biggest exporter of the oilseed and competes with the US for global sales.
Those expectations should largely be factored into the market for now, said Matt Wiegand, a commodity broker for risk management firm FuturesOne in Nebraska. A recovery in soymeal futures helped support soybeans, he added, after soymeal also sank to a 2020 low last week. “It’s been beat up for so long,” Wiegand said of soymeal.
Most-active CBOT March soybean futures were 5-3/4 cents higher at $9.81-1/4 per bushel at the close of trading.
The contract will struggle to break through technical resistance at $10 per bushel if crop weather remains favorable in South America, said Tomm Pfitzenmaier, analyst for Summit Commodity Brokerage in Iowa. “By next summer the world is going to be awash in soybeans, and that will eventually put a lot of downward pressure on prices,” Pfitzenmaier said.
CBOT corn was up 3/4 cent at $4.48-1/2 a bushel at the close of trading, while wheat was down 5-3/4 cents at $5.34-3/4 a bushel. Strength in the dollar hung over the grain markets as it makes US farm products look more expensive in export markets, traders said. The US Department of Agriculture is slated to issue weekly US grain and soy export sales data on Friday, one day later than usual due to the Christmas holiday.
Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures turned lower on a choppy, lower-volume session on Monday, as weakness in the energy market and mild weather forecasts for Brazil’s oilseed crop weighed on prices, market analysts said.
Wheat futures firmed on a technical rebound from last week’s losses, and after Sovecon agriculture consultancy said next year’s Russian wheat exports would fall sharply due to a poor harvest and low carry-over stocks.
Meanwhile, corn futures ended higher, bolstered by mixed Argentinian weather outlooks and as investors set final positions ahead of the Christmas holiday break on Wednesday. CBOT’s most-active wheat settled up 7-1/2 cents at $5.40-1/2 a bushel. Soybeans ended the session down 3-3/4 cents at $9.75-1/2 a bushel, while corn ended up 1-1/2 cents at $4.47-3/4 a bushel.
While trade volumes were fairly light throughout the day, weakness in the energy markets cast some spill-over pressure on corn and soy futures early in the day, said Karl Setzer, partner at Consus Ag Consulting.
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