Soyabean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were slightly weaker early Friday on follow-through technical selling from Thursday and a bearish fundamental outlook, traders said.
The soya market continues to struggle with outlooks for record US stocks by the end of the marketing year. But the market was working off its lows as the soya products began recovering.
May soya was down 1 cent at $5.70-1/4 per bushel and July was down 1-1/2 at $5.83-3/4 by 10:25 am CDT (1525 GMT). J.P. Morgan and R.J. O'Brien each sold 100-200 July, traders said.
Much of this week's strength in soyabeans was linked to the rally in soyaoil which followed the gold and energy markets higher. Both markets were firm early Friday, rebounding some from Thursday's profit-taking drop. The May contract has fallen below most key moving averages, with first key support at 20-day MA of $5.69-1/2 and resistance at the 50-day MA of $5.82-1/2.
Friday is the last trading day for May options. Open interest is the largest in the $6 calls and $5.60 puts. Both levels were off the current trading level of $5.70 in May.
Weather was overall satisfactory for spring fieldwork in the United States and there were only minor harvest delays in South America.
Export business remains sluggish, with top global buyer China quiet and increased competition from South America as freshly harvested soyabeans move into marketing channels. USDA reported on Thursday that last week's export sales were 194,600 tonnes - a marketing-year low.
Midwest spot soyabean basis bids were firm early Friday, underpinned by a lack of movement as farmers have stopped selling beans and focus on fieldwork. The soya products were choppy and rangebound, with soyaoil beginning to gain on soyameal. That followed an early trend in which meal gained on oil as traders unwound oil/meal spreads put on earlier in the week.
May soyameal was up 70 cents at $173.30 per ton and July was unchanged at $172.80. May soyaoil was up 0.04 cent at 24.18 cents per lb, July was 0.11 cent higher at 24.63 cents.