New York | Reuters — Chicago soybean futures rose on Tuesday, rebounding sharply from early losses on lift from technical trading and data showing a pickup in exports of the U.S. oilseeds.
Corn prices weakened, and wheat futures fell sharply.
The most-actively traded Chicago Board of Trade soybean contract rose 0.6 per cent to $12.71-1/2 per bushel (all figures US$). In early trading it had fallen to $12.54-1/4, its lowest since December 2021.
“People trading the market right now don’t have a lot of staying power, they’re not building for the long-term,” said Scott Harms, senior ag risk adviser with Archer Financial Services.
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He said the choppy trade was caught between technical short-sellers without the leverage to “hold it down,” and not enough bullish news “to put together a large rally.”
Soybean farmers did get a ray of light when the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported export inspections of 1.036 million tons of soybeans for the week ending Oct. 5, the highest since mid-February. The release was marred after USDA was forced to correct even-rosier figures released earlier in the day.
Weekly USDA data showed the soybean harvest 43 per cent complete, slightly ahead of an average of analysts polled by Reuters, with the crop condition declining somewhat to 51 per cent rated “good” or “excellent” compared with 52 per cent in the prior week.
CBOT wheat fell after a short-lived rally in the prior session fuelled by a spike in energy prices. December soft red winter wheat shed 2.5 per cent to settle at $5.57 a bushel.
Traders were adjusting positions ahead of USDA’s world agricultural supply and demand estimates (WASDE) report, due out Thursday.
Corn prices fell 0.6 per cent to $4.85-1/2 a bushel, as traders awaited weekly USDA crop progress data. The report, released after the close, said the corn crop was 34 per cent harvested as of Sunday, in line with estimates.
— Reporting by Zachary Goelman in New York, Gus Trompiz in Paris and Peter Hobson in Canberra.
