US soyabean futures fell on Friday for a second session as traders reacted to smaller-than-expected purchases this week by China, coupled with ballooning global supplies, traders said. Corn futures firmed on prospects for China to start buying US supplies of the yellow grain, while wheat declined, consolidating a day after reaching a near two-month high.
As of 12:31 p.m. CST (1731 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade January soyabeans were down 4 cents at $9.03 per bushel, March corn was up 1-1/2 cents at $3.85-3/4 a bushel while March wheat was down 4-1/4 cents at $5.31-3/4 a bushel. The most-active soyabean contract struck a near six-month high on Wednesday, while spot January futures reached a 4-1/2-month top, as traders reported China had booked its the first sizeable purchases of US soyabeans in more than six months after a US-China truce in a tit-for-tat tariff war.
But the rally fizzled after the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Thursday confirmed 1.13 million tonnes of US soyabeans sold to China, and on Friday confirmed another 300,000 tonnes sold to China plus 130,000 tonnes sold to unknown destinations.
Rumours had swirled this week of even larger Chinese purchases of several million tonnes. The USDA on Tuesday left unchanged its forecast for US soyabean stocks at the end of the 2018-19 marketing year at a record-high 955 million bushels, doubling from a year earlier.
Comments
Comments are closed.