Market News

Low commercial demand sends soybeans lower

Soybeans were lower on fund and technical selling. China bought 708,000 tons of new crop U.S. beans, Beijing’s second large outright purchase of new crop this week, but commercial demand remains very light and that sale could be canceled later on. Past that – crop weather looks good and fundamentals are turning bearish. Soybean meal and oil followed beans lower. Reuters reports China is looking to build rail infrastructure in Brazil to aide with commodity shipping.

Corn was firm on technical buying and spillover from wheat. Weekly export sales were good, but it was another slow week for the shipments. In any event, corn’s also watching the weather forecasts, which generally look pretty good. As much as anything, corn’s trade Thursday was pretty much path of least resistance activity. Ethanol futures were higher.

The wheat complex was higher on fund and technical buying. Trade was mixed early, but contracts rallied on uncertainties about the plane crash in Ukraine. There’s still a lot unknown, so speculation is unwarranted, but anything major could interrupt wheat and grain exports. Also internationally, India’s monsoon is growing more active and Egypt may reduce wheat imports under a new food subsidy plan. According to Reuters and KazAgro, Kazakhstan should harvest 18 million tons of grain. Japan bought 86,200 tons of U.S. food wheat, along with 26,500 tons from Australia. Israel picked up 50,000 tons of optional origin feed wheat, Turkey bought 235,000 tons of milling wheat, and Algeria purchased 810,000 tons French milling wheat.