US soybean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade surged on Monday amid beginning-of-the-month fund buying, Brazilian crop concerns and spillover buying from soybean oil which hit a record high, traders said. "We're divorced from the outside markets right now and there are another couple of days of fund buying coming in," said Mario Balletto, analyst for Citigroup.
CBOT March soybeans ended 38-3/4 cents higher at $13.26 per bushel. The back months settled 25 to 44 cents up. Soyoil made contract highs across the board. Nearby March ended 1.64 cent higher at 55.76 cents per lb. The all-time high was notched in the December contract when it rose the 2-cent limit to 57.77 cents - before closing at 57.76 cents.
CBOT soymeal ended $6 to $9.50 per ton higher, with March up $9.70 at $352.90. Commodity funds bought 4,000 soybean contracts, 3,000 soymeal and 3,000 soyoil, traders said.
While new speculative capital moving into Chicago markets was largely responsible for the rally in the CBOT soy complex, Brazilian crop concerns due to heavy rains added fuel to the rally. "The focus is out of Argentina to central Brazil there's harvest issues, quality issues and the potential for more soybean rust," DTN Meteorlogix forecaster Mike Palmerino said.
The northern areas of Brazil's No 1 soy state of Mato Grosso received 1 to 3 inches of rain, locally heavier, over the weekend, Palmerino said. There will be daily episodes of showers over the next seven days, with 0.5 to 2.0 inches expected from Monday to Wednesday.
Argentina, which had been dry earlier in the growing season, received beneficial rains over the weekend, with more expected this week, he said. Adding support to all CBOT commodities was another strong showing in Minneapolis hard red spring wheat futures, with March rising the 30-cent trading limit to $14.33 - an all-time high.
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