Chicago Board of Trade soyabean futures dropped to 1-1/2 week lows on Thursday as traders squared positions ahead of Friday's US Department of Agriculture acreage and quarterly stocks reports. Expectations for a large US crop yields this year added pressure following recent ample rains in the US Midwest farm belt.
CBOT August soyabeans ended the day down 6-1/4 cents at $8.66-3/4 a bushel, while new-crop November settled 5-1/2 cents lower at $8.83-1/2 a bushel. Worries about worsening trade relations with top global soya buyer China hung over the market. Better-than-expected weekly export sales underpinned futures earlier in the session.
The USDA reported export sales of US soyabeans in the latest week at 1,000,800 tonnes (old and new crop years combined), above a range of trade expectations for 400,000 to 1,000,000 tonnes. The USDA is scheduled to release its US acreage and quarterly stocks reports on Friday.
Analysts surveyed by Reuters on average expect the USDA on Friday to raise its estimate of US 2018 soyabean plantings to 89.691 million acres, from its March forecast of 88.982 million. The average June 1 soyabean stocks estimate among analysts surveyed by Reuters was 1.225 billion bushels, the highest June 1 figure on record, if realized.
Friday is also first notice day for deliveries against CBOT July futures contracts. Analysts surveyed by Reuters expect deliveries on zero to 1,500 contracts of soyabeans, zero to 150 contracts of soyameal and 200 to 1,000 contracts of soyaoil.
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