Chicago Board of Trade soyabean futures closed nearly 10 cents per bushel lower in the front months on Wednesday, on a technical setback as prices flip-flopped from Tuesday's rally, traders said.
There was little news to give the market direction, traders said. They were waiting for the US Agriculture Department to release its September crop estimates on Monday and for the Gulf coast ports to resume more normal shipping after Hurricane Quatrain ravaged the area last week.
"Until the report comes out and with the uncertainty over the Gulf situation we're going to be trading very haphazardly like we have the past three days.
We can't seem to find a direction," said one-cash connected trader.
September soyabeans closed 9-3/4 cents weaker at $5.95 per bushel. November soya was down 8 at $6.06-1/4, after rallying 15-1/4 cents on Tuesday.
Selling escalated past when November slipped through nearby support at $6.05. Commodity funds were net sellers of 4,000 lots but commercial pricing surfaced as November dipped to the $6.05-$6.06 range, traders said.
The US main grain export area at the Gulf was stirring to life this week as ships were beginning to load grain. The port of New Orleans is set to resume export loading as on Friday in the aftermath of Hurricane Quatrain.
But there was a scarcity of barges to move grain to the Gulf, with at least 100 vessels lost after last week's storms. Shippers were also booking freight ahead of the Midwest harvest.
The combination drove barge costs on the Mississippi River to over 700 percent of tariff up 100 points in one day. Weakness in soyameal following larger-than-expected meal deliveries posted before the open, traders said off to a weak start, pressured the market.
September soyameal closed $3.30 per ton lower at $184.80, with the deferred 20 cents to $2.30 weaker. There were 114 deliveries on the September soyameal contract on Wednesday after CBOT registrations jumped by 100 lots to 200 contracts late on Tuesday.
A Goldenberg Hehmeyer customer stopped them all. USDA said late on Tuesday that 54 percent of the US soya crop was in good to excellent condition, up from 53 percent the week before.
That was contrary to traders' expectations for soyabeans to deteriorate by 1-2 points. Maturity of the crop was on par with the five-year average, with 15 percent of US soyabeans dropping leaves.
But in Iowa, slated to be the top Soya State in 2005, the crop maturity was ahead of the five-year pace one indication that soyabeans were dying, which could limit yield potential.
Twelve percent of Iowa soyabeans were dropping leaves as of Sunday, compared to 2 percent a year ago and 8 percent for the five-year average.
US analysts were mixed in their outlooks of whether the government will cut or raise its 2005 US soya crop estimate on Monday's report.
Estimates ranged from 2.768 billion to 2.895 billion compared to USA's August estimate for 2.791 billion. Firms continued to post deliveries against the September soyabean contract amid the weakness in Midwest cash markets.
But deliveries were on the lighter side. They're 42 soyabean lots issued on Wednesday. The Term Commodities house account was a key stopper of 29 lots.
Registrations with the CBOT sagged to 963 lots from the previous 980 late on Tuesday. Overnight export business featured Taiwan buying 58,000 tonnes of US soya. CBOT soyaoil futures followed soyameal and soyabeans lower, with September closing 0.23 down at 22.62 cents per lb. The back months were 0.25 to 0.32 cent lower.
Deliveries on the September soyaoil contract totalled 320 lots and the ADM house account was the key stopper of 239 lots. Registrations with the CBOT were unchanged at 3,828 lots.
Malaysian palm oil futures closed firm overnight, helped by the climb in rival US soyaoil. But trading was thin ahead of export data for the first half of September, traders said.
Comments
Comments are closed.