Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade soybean and soyoil futures fell to their lowest levels in seven weeks on Monday on worries about demand for U.S. oilseed supplies and generally favorable crop weather, analysts said.
Corn futures followed soybeans lower. But wheat futures rose on short-covering as a Ukrainian drone attack in Russia shifted attention back on the war between the two grain exporters, and as the U.S. dollar declined.
CBOT July soybean were down 8-1/4 cents at $10.33-1/2 per bushel after dipping to $10.32-1/2, the contract’s lowest since April 11. July corn was down 5-3/4 cents at $4.38-1/4 a bushel while CBOT July wheat was up five cents at $5.39 a bushel.
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U.S. grains: Soybean futures set two-week high on US weather worry, soyoil rally
Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures touched a two-week high on Friday on worries that heat may threaten U.S. crops and expectations that the country’s biofuel policy would boost demand for soyoil, analysts said.
Pressure in soybeans stemmed from trade tensions with China, the world’s biggest soybean buyer, after President Donald Trump on Friday accused China of violating an agreement with the U.S. to mutually roll back tariffs. However, Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will likely speak this week, the White House said on Monday.
Ample Brazilian soy supplies continue to hang over the market. Agribusiness consultancy AgRural raised its forecast for Brazil’s 2024/25 soybean crop by 1.3 million tons to 169 million tonnes, citing improved yields in several states.
Uncertainty over U.S. biofuel policy pressured CBOT soyoil futures, which also hit their lowest since mid-April.
“Soyoil and soybean prices continue the selloff started last week as chart signals turn negative, with little help from the China-U.S. trade talks that have broken down,” StoneX Chief Commodities Economist Arlan Suderman wrote in a client note.
Ahead of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s weekly U.S. crop progress report due later on Monday, analysts surveyed by Reuters on average expected the government to rate 68 per cent of the U.S. soybean crop as good to excellent in its initial ratings for the 2025 soy harvest, roughly on par with previous years.
For corn, analysts on average rated 69 per cent of the crop as good to excellent, up one percentage point from last week.
Most analysts expected the USDA to raise its ratings for the U.S. spring wheat crop after last week’s ratings fell well below trade expectations. U.S. winter wheat ratings were seen as steady as the harvest of that crop gets under way.
