US soyabean futures fell on Thursday on disappointing weekly export data and expectations that US farmers might increase soyabean seedings this spring and plant less corn, analysts said. Corn and wheat futures were higher. At the Chicago Board of Trade as of 12:48 pm CDT (1748 GMT), July soyabeans were down 12 cents at $10.66-1/4 per bushel. The contract reached $10.89-3/4, but turned lower after failing for a second day to surpass Tuesday's multi-month high of $10.91-1/2.
July corn was up 7-1/2 cents at $3.85 a bushel and July wheat was up 7 cents at $4.66 a bushel. Soyabeans fell after the US Department of Agriculture's weekly export sales report put sales of US old-crop soyabeans in the latest week at 212,400 tonnes and new-crop sales at just 6,900 tonnes, below trade expectations.
However, Roose said, the weekly sales data cast doubt on strong US soya export forecasts that the USDA released in a monthly report on Tuesday. Meanwhile, wet weather forecast for the eastern US Midwest, coupled with CBOT soyabeans' rally to multi-month highs, may prompt farmers to plant more soyabeans and less corn. Traders speculate that the USDA's June 30 acreage report could show a shift of about a million acres from corn into soyabeans compared to the government's March 31 planting intentions report, said Steve Erdman with EFG Group in Chicago.
The US corn crop was 64 percent planted as of May 8, but rainy weather may have slowed progress since then. Soyabeans can be planted later than corn, so delays tend to favour soyabeans. CBOT corn also drew support from weekly US export sales topping 1 million tonnes, and news that private exporters sold 210,000 tonnes of US corn to Saudi Arabia in the last day.
Wheat rose on better-than-expected weekly US export sales and short covering. Commodity funds hold a large net short position in CBOT wheat, leaving the market vulnerable to short-covering rallies. Wheat fundamentals remain bearish, with the USDA forecasting that US inventories will rise above 1 billion bushels by June 1, 2017, the most in 29 years.
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