soyabeans futures at the Chicago Board of Trade rose on Thursday following the moves in soyaoil, which tracked the strength in energy markets on fears that Gulf of Mexico refineries would be crippled by Hurricane Rita, traders said.
Soyabeans oil has been tracking the energy markets acting more like an energy product than a food this week amid rising demand for bodiless. About 90 percent of US bodiless are made from soyabeans oil.
"We sagged late when they downgraded the hurricane and crude oil broke," one CBOT floor broker said. Hurricane Rita weakened to a Category 4 storm on Thursday.
The National Hurricane Centre forecast that the storm should strike the Houston, Texas area on Saturday. November soyabeans closed 2-3/4 cents per bushel higher at $5.80-1/2, down from its top of $5.85.
The deferred settled 2 to 4 cents firmer. October soyaoil settled 0.40 cent higher at 23.32 cents per lb., rising 1.19 cent in the past week. The deferred were up 0.20 to 0.36 cent.
Funds bought about 3,000-4,000 lots each of soyaoil and soyabeans, traders said. "I think we took our focus off the real issue which is the size of the crop.
We're having a little bit of a short-covering bounce as eyes switched to what's happening with Hurricane Rita," said Don Rose, analyst with US Commodities.
Weekly export sales data was supportive, above expectations. The US Agriculture Department reported that US export sales of soya last week were 752,000 tonnes, above estimates for 400,000 to 700,000 tonnes.
The top amount of 233,000 tonnes was slotted for unknown destinations. But China, the world's top soya buyer, took 223,000 tonnes, a supportive sign confirming recent industry talk. USDA also confirmed on Thursday the sale of 120,000 tonnes of soyabeans to China in the past day.
Midwest soyabeans bids were steady to weaker at interior points on Thursday amid prospects that supplies would grow as harvest progresses. But river bids surged due to a drop in barge freight costs.
Harvest was moving along in the Midwest on Thursday with reports of better-than-expected yields continuing this week. Soyabeans yields of 40 to 50 bushels per acre in Midwest fields were common, traders and cash dealers said.
But rain over the next five days could stall harvest, Meteorlogix weather service said on Thursday. The soyameal market remains the weakest market of the complex as soft US cash soyameal markets loom over prices.
October soyameal closed 50 cents lower at $172.10 per ton, with deferred down 40 to 90 cents. There was a neutral reaction to US weekly sales among traders for soyameal and soyaoil as they came within expectations.
USDA reported US soyameal export sales from last week at 94,200 tonnes (old-crop and new-crop combined). Trade estimates were for 75,000 to 150,000 tonnes.
US weekly soyaoil exports sales last week totalled 5,900 tonnes (old-crop and new-crop combined), within the range of estimates for zero to 10,000 tonnes.
Malaysian palm oil futures closed firm overnight, following rival US soyaoil.