Soybean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade fell on Friday, setting back from Thursday's firm close as the soya market followed grains higher, traders said.
May soya was down 5-3/4 cents at $5.58-1/4 per bushel by 11:35 am CDT (1635 GMT). The deferred months were 4-1/4 to 7-1/2 cents lower.
Corn and wheat were also weak early after open interest in the grains markets exploded on Thursday, when prices rallied. However, corn and wheat were recovering by the midsession while soyabeans stayed weak.
Soybeans were underpinned by ideas that speculative money from commodity funds could continue to flow into the CBOT markets. That has limited the selling in soyabeans, although commodity funds have been most interested in buying CBOT wheat and corn, traders said.
Firms continued to roll out of May soya positions before the start of the delivery period at month's end and the US Agriculture Department's crop report on Monday.
Fimat spread 3,000 July/May and Refco Man spread 2,000 May/July.
Few changes were expected in USDA's April supply-and-demand report on Monday. If anything, the government could raise its US soya stocks estimate slightly, up 6 million bushels from its current record large forecast of 565 million, due to lagging export pace.
Soybeans fell to four-month lows this week, trading below all key moving averages.
The weather was viewed as bearish as recent rain across the US Midwest was replenishing soil moisture ahead of planting season. But heavy rain in the northern belt was delaying field work. In South America, there were minor harvest slowdowns due to showers.
Some support stemmed from the USDA confirming on Friday the sale of 1.75 million tonnes of US soyabeans to China for the 2006/07 marketing year.
The soya products were lower on a setback. CBOT May soyameal was down $1.60 at $171.10 per ton, with the deferreds down $1 to $1.60. May soyaoil was 0.14 cent lower at 22.53 cents per lb. The back months were off 0.12 to 0.23 cent.
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