Soyabean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade fell early on Thursday, taking their cue from wheat - the market leader, traders said. For the past week, most of the moves in Chicago commodities have been linked to the volatile wheat market, rising and falling with it.
CBOT wheat was called to open 15-20 cents per bushel lower on profit-taking after Wednesday's limit-up move triggered by strong export demand. The soyabean market was technically overbought this week as it road higher on the coattails of wheat. Profit-taking was hitting soyabeans as well as wheat.
September soyabeans were down 2-1/4 cents at $8.86-3/4 per bushel and new-crop November was 1-3/4 lower at $9.01-1.4 per bushel by 12:10 pm CDT (1710 GMT). The products followed. Soyameal was mostly lower - down $2.20 to up 10 cents per ton, with September up 10 cents at $245.50. Soyabean oil was 0.08 to 0.22 cent lower, with September off 0.09 cent at 37.22 cents per lb.
Updated private estimates for the 2007 US soyabean crop were mildly supportive, traders said. Analytical firm Informa Economics cut its soyabean production forecast to 2.664 billion bushels, with an average yield of 42.1 bushels per acre, traders said.
In August, Informa estimated soyabean production at 2.70 billion bushels, yielding 42.7 bpa. But its forecast is still above USDA's August outlook for a 2.625-billion-bushel crop and an average yield of 41.5 bpa. USDA will issue it next crop forecast on September 12.