US soyabean futures rallied on Monday, led higher by a surging soyameal market, on fresh concerns about hot and dry weather limiting crop production in Argentina, traders said. Wheat futures also rose, with the benchmark Chicago Board of Trade March futures contract gaining 2.1 percent on support from dry conditions that were threatening yields in the US Plains.
The strength in wheat and soyabeans spilled over into the corn market but the yellow grain's gains were capped by technical selling when prices neared the 5-1/2-month high hit last week. Concerns about Argentine weather allowed trades to shrug off news that China, the world's top buyer of soyabeans, canceled export deals to buy 455,000 tonnes of US soyabeans for delivery during the 2017/18 marketing year. At 10:54 am CST (1654 GMT), CBOT March soyabean futures were up 8-1/2 cents at $9.91-1/2 a bushel. The contract hit a high of $10.04-1/4 but struggled to hold support above $10.00 a bushel.
Soyameal futures were up 2.7 percent at $353.10 a ton, with the most-active contract hitting its highest since July 2016.
After rain late last week calmed investor worries about crop damage in Argentina, forecasts calling for a drier week ahead and potentially scorching temperatures stirred up the market again on Monday. Strong weekly export data also underpinned the soyabean market. USDA on Monday morning reported weekly soyabean export inspections of 1.319 million tonnes, topping analysts' forecasts that ranged from 800,000 to 1.1 million tonnes.
Wheat export inspections were 487,902 tonnes and corn export inspections were 835,131 tonnes. Both were in line with a range of analysts' forecasts. CBOT March soft red winter wheat was up 9-3/4 cents at $4.58-3/4 a bushel.
CBOT March corn futures were 2-3/4 cents higher at $3.64-3/4 a bushel.