Soyabean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade closed lower on Thursday amid commodity fund selling and corn/soya spreading, pulling back from 2-1/2-year highs set on Wednesday, traders said. The sell-off was partly blamed on the strength of the US dollar, which was firm throughout the day on a better-than-expected US weekly initial jobless claims report and expectations that Egyptian President Mubarak would step down after the military high command took control.
In addition, soya traders were unimpressed by the US Department of Agriculture's weekly sales report. Old-crop soyabeans exports at 20,800 tonnes were a marketing year low. However, new-crop sales were strong at 950,300 tonnes, nearly all to China. CBOT March soyabeans ended down 18 cents at $14.33 per bushel, while new-crop November was 11-1/2 cents lower at $13.85-1/2.
March soyameal ended down $6.10 at $382.50 per ton. March soyaoil down 0.70 cents at 59.04 cents per lb. Commodity funds sold an estimated 7,000 soyabean futures contracts, 2,000 soyameal and 3,000 soyaoil contracts, traders said. Volume in soyabean futures was estimated at 237,755, contracts, according to data provided by the CME Group, about 17 percent less than the 30-day average calculated by Thomson Reuters.