Chicago Soybeans End Off Highs

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 08:58 | Categorized as

25/04/12 -- Soybeans: May 12 Soybeans closed at USD14.73 1/2, up 12 1/4 cents; Nov 12 Soybeans closed at USD13.70 1/2, up 18 1/2 cents; May 12 Soybean Meal closed at USD413.90, up USD1.80; May 12 Soybean Oil closed at 55.65, up 36 points. Beans and meal closed well off early session highs, dragged down by weakness in corn and wheat it would seem. Widely touted reports of sales to China in the past day or two remain as yet unconfirmed by the USDA. That make tomorrow's weekly export sales report interesting with the trade anticipating sales in the region of 800 TMT - 1.25 MMT. meal sales are also expected to be high. Funds were said to be net buyers of 7,000 soybean contracts on the day, sending prices to new highs for this move. Soybean prices in Brazil are also said to be at their highest since 2008, which is pretty spectacular considering that they are only just wrapping up their harvest.

Corn: May 12 Corn closed at USD6.11, down 7 1/4 cents; Dec 12 Corn closed at USD5.38, down 3 1/2 cents. The USDA reported the sale of 420,000 MT of new crop corn to "unknown" along with 172,500 MT of new crop confirmed as China plus an additional 90,000 MT of old crop corn to China. That follows on from the sale of 480,000 MT of US corn to "unknown" on Tuesday. Interestingly both days those confirmed sales met with a "buy the rumour, sell the fact" response. Weekly export sales tomorrow are expected to be in the region of 550 TMT - 1 MMT. The weekly ethanol grind was reported to be 254.3 million gallons, an eight week low as demand from that sector continues to wane. Funds were said to have sold 12,000 corn contracts on the day

Wheat: May 12 CBOT Wheat closed at USD6.16 1/2, down 8 cents; May 12 KCBT Wheat closed at USD6.32, down 1 cent; May 12 MGEX Wheat closed at USD7.82 3/4, down 1 3/4 cents. Weakness in corn spilled over into wheat, with reports of a very early harvest getting underway in some parts of southern Texas. Funds were estimated to have sold 2,500 Chicago wheat contracts on the day. Saudi Arabia is tendering for 440,000 MT of wheat and Jordan is in for 100,000 MT. Algeria is said to have passed on Argentine wheat this week due to quality issues, which should help keep US wheat as amongst the most competitively priced around. Western Europe seems to have drawn a line under its drought, although there is some talk of problems still persisting in Eastern Europe.