Soyabean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed higher on Friday on an end-of-week short-covering bounce ignited by weather uncertainty and its impact on young crops, traders said. July soyabean closed 2-3/4 cents per bushel firmer at $6.32, rallying to a high of $6.38-1/2 after it broke through the 50-day moving average of $6.35. New-crop November settled 4 cents higher $6.30. The US July contract closed at 9-cent discount to the July South American soyabean contract, which made its debut on Friday. Weather remained the focus of traders.
The coolness was slowing emergence of the newly seeded US bean crop and it needed warmer temperatures to get a lift. Meteorlogix six- to 10-day forecast for Wednesday through on Sunday is for below-normal temperatures.
"An area that's showing a tremendous amount of delays is southern Minnesota super saturated fields and cooler temperatures are not helping those fields dry out," said Joe Victor, an analyst with Hallandale, a consulting firm in northern Illinois.
Cash markets and export businesses were quiet, putting a cap on the rally. US Midwest cash markets were weaker as this week's rally spurred increased country movement. Importers turn to South America for newly harvested soyabean. Also, the recent strength in the value of the dollar may be trimming export sales a bit, they said. The soyameal closed mixed, coming off its highs late, amid softer US cash soyameal markets. Cash markets weakened about $5 to $6 per ton this week as processors had ample meal supplies and customer demand was waning, traders said.
Some crushers, especially in the western belt, also saw increased bean movement this week. July soyameal closed 70 cents higher at $196.30 per ton, but nearly $2 off its high of $198. The deferred closed 50 cents higher to $1.10 lower.
CBOT soyaoil futures were up on pre-weekend technical bounce, traders said. July soyaoil closed 0.27 higher at 22.31 cents per lb., with the back months up 0.18 to 0.27. Malaysian palm oil futures closed lower overnight.
Palm fell despite friendly export numbers for May 1-20, traders in Kuala Lumpur said. Pressure also stemmed from losses in rival US soyaoil. The July board crush was 1.76 cent per bushel higher at 45.27 cents.
Funds bought about 3,000 soya futures, 1,000 soyameal and 3,000 soyaoil contracts, traders estimated.
Volume was on the lighter side. Estimated soyabean trade was 45,765 futures and 15,719 options. In soyameal, volume was pegged at 19,372 futures and 1,395 options. Soyaoil trade was estimated at 21,882 futures and 769 options.