US soyabean futures pared gains after rising to a nearly two-month high on Tuesday after a rally fuelled by soaring soyameal prices sparked a round of farmer sales and investor profit taking. Soyabean and soyameal futures each traded in both positive and negative territory in volatile dealings at the Chicago Board of Trade. A record-large US soya harvest started to gain steam after a slow start, replenishing supplies that had run short at domestic processing plants.
Corn futures also trimmed earlier gains on harvest pressure and a spike in farmer sales. CBOT November soyabeans were up 2-3/4 cents at $10.09 per bushel as of 12:08 pm CDT (1708 GMT) after rising as high as $10.34-1/2. Soyameal for December delivery was up 20 cents at $377.00 per ton after jumping to $399.80. CBOT December corn was up 1/2 cent to $3.63-1/2.
"The push above $10 (in soyabeans) probably cleaned out a lot of buy stops and now we're coming back down," said Mike Zuzolo, analyst at Global Commodity Analytics. "The meal market has done what it needs to do to ration demand and the bean market has done what it needs to do to ration export demand."
The US Department of Agriculture said after the market close on Monday that the US soyabean harvest was 70 percent complete, close to the five-year average of 76 percent and up from 53 percent a week ago. USDA said 46 percent of the crop was cut, below the average pace of 65 percent. CBOT December wheat rose 1 percent, or 6-1/2 cents, to $5.29-1/4 a bushel, underpinned by crop concerns around the world. The USDA estimated the condition of winter wheat at 59 percent good-to-excellent, well below analysts' expectations of 68 percent. A lack of rain and early cold have left crops vulnerable in Russia and Ukraine, while in Australia adverse weather is expected to put the wheat harvest below the official forecast.