US MIDDAY: soyabeans down

Soyabean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade turned lower on Tuesday on a profit-taking setback from the rally on Friday that was triggered by a surge to 10-year highs in corn, traders said.
Traders said the soyabean market continued to trade under the bearish influence of a big supply of soyabeans, but the rally in corn continued to give soya occasional lifts. At 10:44 am CST (1644 GMT), CBOT soya was unchanged to 7 cents per bushel lower, with March down 5-1/4 at $7.11-1/4 per bushel.
Soyabeans are trying to keep pace with the strength in corn to prevent further acreage losses this spring. The historically high corn prices relative to soyabeans are enticing farmers to plant a lot more corn and fewer soyabeans, traders said.
Nearby fundamentals remain bearish for soyabeans, but the outlook is positive looking into the 2007/08 crop year given prospects for fewer US soya plantings.
Soyameal was down 50 cents per ton to up $6.00, with March down 60 at $209.00 per ton. Soyaoil was down 0.20 to 0.32 cent per lb, with March down 0.32 at 28.83 cents per lb.
Monthly crush data issued by the National Oilseed Processors Association early Tuesday came in close to expectations. NOPA said its members crushed 149.2 million bushels of soyabeans in December, compared to trade estimates for 148.5-150.5 million bushels. December US soyaoil stocks were at 2.606 billion lbs vs 2.694 billion in November and 1.829 billion in December 2005, NOPA reported.
Soyameal exports were at 514,500 tons versus 540,290 tons in November. There were 292 January soyabean deliveries on Monday, which were met by a strong stopper as a UBS Securities division customer took them all.
There were heavy January soyameal deliveries of 401 lots with commercial Term Commodities taking 166. In soyaoil, there were light January deliveries - 15, which were met by scattered stopping.
In soyabean futures/options, large speculators were net long roughly 55,000 lots, down 4,700 lots from the week before. For soyaoil, funds were net long 43,100 lots in futures/options, down 4,500 contracts. In soyameal futures/options, funds were net long 7,600 lots, down roughly 4,700 contracts from the week before. Spot basis bids for soyabeans in the Midwest were weak early Tuesday as country sales picked up due to the CBOT rally, traders said.