Chicago Board of Trade soyabean futures closed nearly unchanged on Thursday, slipping from their highs as corn and soyabean oil moved off their highs, traders said. "Meal weakened and oil weakened, so beans fell. Oil didn't have any follow-through support from crude oil and meal supplies are ample," said Mario Balletto, analyst with Citicorp in Chicago.
"You still have the concern about delayed corn planting and we could be adding bean acres," he added. May soyabeans ended 1/2 cent lower at $7.33-3/4 per bushel and July settled 3/4 cent weaker at $7.47-3/4. Beans got a boost from some aggressive moves in the options pit. Rand Financial and Tenco each bought 1,000 November $8.20 calls and sold $1,000 November $9.20 calls. Soyameal closed 10 cents to $1.20 per ton lower, with May down $1.20 at $194.70.
May soyaoil closed 0.10 cent higher at 33.17 cents per lb, with the back months up 0.07 cent to down 0.10 cent down. May corn ended 7-3/4 cents higher at $3.79-3/4 per bushel, but significantly off its high of $3.86-1/2.
Commodity funds bought 1,000 soyabean futures, were even in soyameal and bought 500-1,000 soyaoil, traders said. Corn was boosted by worries about planting delays, rising to a 3-1/2-week high, while soyaoil in the session followed the strength in Malaysian palm oil futures, which hit an eight-year high overnight.
Soyaoil made contract highs across the board on Thursday, after making new highs overnight. The vegetable and crude oil markets were strong overnight on concerns that violence in Nigeria could further disrupt oil supplies, traders said. But New York crude oil prices fell on Thursday after Nigerian militants freed hostages taken from an Italian-operated oil field.
Additionally, soyaoil was supported by US Census data issued before the open showing good soyaoil demand for biofuel production, traders said. Weekly export sales data was disappointing for soyabeans.
Old-crop sales were at a marketing-year low of a minus 70,700 tonnes, reflecting China's cancellation of 354,900 tonnes of old-crop. But China bought 302,000 tonnes of new-crop soyabeans. Total old- and new-crop soyabean sales were 471,00 tonnes versus, which was within estimates. Weekly export sales for soyaoil and soyameal came within expectations.
USDA said soyameal export sales last week totalled 124,400 tonnes (119,100 tonnes old-crop). US soyaoil export sales last week totalled 3,500 tonnes, all old-crop. In other news, the Brazilian real hit a six-year high in the past day, which could slow down farmer sales, viewed supportive for the back months in CBOT soyabeans. Big deliveries against the May soya complex contracts on Thursday underscored the ample cash supplies, traders said.
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