A turn to good crop weather in the US Midwest during August, the key yield-determining month for soya, drove Chicago Board of Trade soyabean futures to 8-1/2 month lows and new contract lows on Friday, traders said.
At 11:29 am CDT (1629 GMT), CBOT soya was down 5 to 8 cents per bushel, with August down 7 at $5.50 per bushel. New-crop November was down 6-1/4 at $5.68. The new contract low for August is $5.49-1/2 per bushel, below the previous low of $5.55.
J.P. Morgan and FIMAT USA each sold 1,000 November. Plunging corn and wheat futures in response to bearish USDA forecasts for corn and wheat production also weighed on soyabean futures, they said. USDA, in its August crop production and supply/demand reports, forecast this year's US soya output at 2.928 billion bushels, below an average estimate for 3.028 billion.
Export activity overnight included news Taiwan bought 23,000 tonnes of US corn and 12,000 tonnes of US soya. Deliveries on the August contract totalled 544 lots amid scattered stopping. Soyameal futures fell to new contract lows in all months amid spillover pressure from the tumbling soya. Soyameal was down 70 cents per ton to up 20 cents, with August down 70 at $157.20 per ton.
Deliveries on the August contract at 50 lots and commercial Bunge stopped all of the soyameal. Soyaoil futures were 0.48 to 0.60 cent per lb lower, with August down 0.60 at 25.50 cents per lb. Deliveries on the August contract of 175 lots were all stopped by an R.J. O'Brien customer.