Chicago Board of Trade soyabean futures fell on Tuesday, stepping back from a two-session rally on a mix of technical selling and slowing export demand for US supplies, traders said. Corn also fell, while wheat was narrowly mixed, underpinned by a decline in the dollar. At the CBOT as of 10:52 am CST (1652 GMT), March soyabeans were down 8-1/2 cents at $9.75 per bushel. March corn was down 3-1/4 cents at $3.80-3/4, and March wheat was down 1/4 cent at $5.20-1/4 a bushel.
Soyabeans took cues from a setback in soyameal futures, which fell after the lead March contract failed to hold chart support above $340 a ton. Soyameal had rebounded from a 2-1/2 month low set last week, buoyed by export demand as poor margins slowed meal production in Argentina, the world's top supplier. But values fell Tuesday on profit-taking.
"It's the meal market's inability to follow through from yesterday's rally. If the meal market can't do it, the beans are not going to," said Tom Fritz, a partner at EFG Group in Chicago. Also bearish, the US Agriculture Department confirmed that private exporters cancelled sales of 120,000 tonnes of soyabeans to China for delivery in 2014/15. USDA said exporters also reported fresh sales of 111,000 tonnes of soyabeans to unknown destinations.
"I think the cancellation more than outweighed the net addition to unknown destinations," said analyst Terry Reilly at Futures International. USDA's announcement marked the third cancellation this month of soyabean sales to top buyer China. The moves reflect a seasonal shift in the focus of the export market from the United States to South America, where the soya harvest is getting started. Wheat fell on plentiful global stocks and weak export demand, with CBOT March hitting a three-month low at $5.17-1/2 a bushel. But losses were limited by a setback in the value of the dollar, which in theory makes US wheat more attractive to those holding other currencies.