BLBG:Soybeans Reach One-Week High on Increasing Demand From China
Soybeans reached a one-week high in Chicago on signs of increasing demand from China, the world’s largest importer of the oilseed, amid a threat to the Argentine crop from dry weather.
China bought 120,000 metric tons of soybeans from U.S. exporters for delivery by Aug. 31, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said yesterday. Argentina, the world’s third-largest exporter after Brazil and the U.S., may have a 50 million-ton crop, below last month’s forecast of 52 million tons, Hamburg- based researcher Oil World said yesterday.
“Traders are optimistic that oilseed sales to China will pick up after week-long Chinese New Year festivities,” Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in a report e-mailed today. “Another sale of U.S. soybeans to China, combined with lower-than-expected rainfall in Argentina and freezing temperatures across China’s rapeseed production areas, supported strong price gains.”
Soybeans for delivery in May rose 0.7 percent to $14.6775 a bushel at 5:44 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade. Prices touched $14.70, the highest since Feb. 8. Trading volume was 35 percent higher than the 100-day average for the time of day.
Temperatures may drop to between minus 3 degrees Celsius (26.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and minus 5 degrees Celsius in Anhui today, which might harm rapeseed growth, according to a forecast by Xn121.com, a state-owned crop weather service website. Rapeseed for delivery in May on NYSE Liffe in Paris was unchanged at 474 euros ($634) a ton after touching 476 euros, the highest for a most-active contract since Jan. 29.
Corn for delivery in May fell 0.2 percent to $6.9075 a bushel in Chicago and wheat for the same delivery month slipped 0.1 percent to $7.3825 a bushel. In Paris, milling wheat for delivery in May rose 0.4 percent to 239.75 euros a ton.
To contact the reporters on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net; Whitney McFerron in London at wmcferron1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net
