Market News

Commercial demand supports soybeans, corn, wheat

Soybeans were higher on commercial and technical buying. China bought 498,000 tons of new crop U.S. beans Friday, the 8th business day in a row with a new sale reported by the USDA. Recent demand has likely been driven by a scarcity of South American supplies and generally lower U.S. prices. The trade’s expecting a big crop with generally good growing conditions. Soybean meal was higher on commercial demand and bean oil was mostly weak. The USDA attaché in China projects 2016/17 soybean imports at a record 86 million tons.

Corn was higher on commercial and technical buying. There’s plenty of corn available, but demand continues to be strong. Corn’s also expecting a big crop and watching the weather, with most of the U.S. crop in good shape. The USDA’s new supply, demand, and production estimates are out on the 12th. Ethanol futures were higher. The USDA’s attaché in South Africa expects net imports of 3.5 million tons during 2015/16 following drought, but net exports of around 1 million tons in 2016/17.

The wheat complex was higher on commercial and technical buying. The fundamentals are bearish, especially on the supply side, but there’s continued commercial buying interest near the recent lows. Near term forecasts had scattered rain for dry parts of the spring wheat region. Taiwan is tendering for 85,300 tons of milling wheat, Israel is in the market for 55,000 tons of feed wheat, and Jordan is tendering for 100,000 tons of hard wheat.