US soybeans ease after rally - CBOT
Supply worries limit decline
24 September 2024
2 minute read
By: Chicago soybeans edged lower on Tuesday, giving up some of the previous session's gain that drove prices to their highest in seven weeks on concerns over US yields and Brazilian weather, reported Reuters.
Wheat and corn prices eased in early Asian trade, after both markets closed higher on Monday.
The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) fell 0.3% to $10.36 a bushel, after climbing on Monday to $10.42 a bushel, the highest since Aug. 5.
Wheat lost 0.1% to $5.82 a bushel and corn fell 0.2% to $4.12-1/2 a bushel.
The soybean market rallied about 2.7% on Monday on worries about crop weather in Brazil, the world's top supplier, and yields from the harvest in the United States, the second-largest exporter.
With the US harvest under way, market players await more harvested yield data to determine whether a hot and dry finish to the Midwest growing season impacted yields. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) this month kept its national soybean yield estimate unchanged at a record-high 53.2 bushels per acre.
In Brazil, dry weather is delaying the start of seeding. Soybean planting was 0.9% complete by last Thursday, consultancy AgRural said, below last year's 1.9%.
Commodity funds hold sizeable net short positions in soybean and corn futures, leaving the markets vulnerable to short-covering. Commodity funds were net buyers of CBOT corn, soybean, soymeal, wheat and soy oil futures contracts on Monday, traders said.
The USDA's weekly crop progress report showed the US corn harvest was 14% complete, beneath an average of analyst expectations but ahead of the five-year average of 11%.
European trade association Coceral on Friday cut its estimate of this year's grain crop in the European Union and Britain.
Meanwhile, global stock indexes rose on Monday as Federal Reserve policymakers said last week's large interest rate cut was warranted, while the euro fell against the dollar as business activity readings of the euro zone economy disappointed.
