Soyabean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed lower on Monday amid technical weakness, reaching their lows late as corn and wheat faded, traders said. "Crude oil also came under a lot of pressure from the roll and it hurt the soya complex," one CBOT floor broker said.
On Monday was the first day of index funds rolling their long positions in various commodity markets to later months? That weighed on the nearby months of soyabeans, soyaoil, crude oil and corn, traders said.
May soyabeans closed 11-1/2 cents per bushel lower at $7.49. The back months ended 6 to 11-1/2 cents down. "The was disappointing, relative to the strength in wheat and corn.
As a result, there was selling. They're also selling beans, buying corn," said Mario Balletto, analyst for Citicorp. Corn settled 2-3/4 cents lower to 2 cents higher, after rallying about 15 cents on the open.
The market climbed on worries that frigid temperature and rain in the US Midwest this week would add to planting delays, traders said. "If you're talking delays in planting corn, then there's going to be more bean acres out there," said one CBOT trader.
But corn retreated on updated weather forecasts that looked a little drier for next week and the start of index funds rolling their long positions. Wheat was the strongest market in Chicago, with the May contract touching the 30-cent price limit on the open boosted by concerns that the US winter wheat crop suffered from unseasonably cool temperatures this weekend.
But traders shrugged off the concern as the session progressed and CBOT wheat closed only 2-1/2 to 4-1/2 cents higher in the nearby. Soyameal followed soyabeans, ending $1.40 to $3.60 per ton lower. May close down $3.60 at $209.40. Soyaoil reached its lows late as crude oil sank nearly $3 per barrel. May soyaoil ended 0.34 cent lower at 32.08 cents per lb, with the back months down 0.10 to 0.30 cent.
Commodity funds sold 3,000 soyabean futures, 2,000 soyameal and 2,000 soyaoil. Spread trade was active, especially on the screens, traders said. On Monday's moves were ahead of the US Agriculture Department's monthly supply-and-demand report to be issued on Tuesday.
The general consensus among analysts was that USDA would cuts its US 2006/07 end-stock estimate for soyabeans by 10 million bushels to reflect data in the March 1 grains stocks report. Last week's export inspections for soyabeans were higher than expected a supportive feature. But CIF soyabean values at the US Gulf sank on Monday, a sign of poor export demand, CIF traders said.
USDA reported that 20.2 million bushels of soyabeans were inspected for export last week, above trade estimates for 12 million to 17 million. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission reported on Friday that large speculators expanded their net long position in CBOT soyabean and soyabean oil futures/options, while reducing their longs in soyameal.