(Bloomberg) – Soybeans rose for the first time in three days in Chicago on signs of stronger demand for supplies from domestic processors in the U.S., the world’s biggest grower, and from buyers overseas.
U.S. processors crushed 138.3 million bushels of soybeans in May, up 5 percent from April and 15 percent more than a year earlier, the Washington-based National Oilseed Processors Association said yesterday. U.S. export sales totaled about 1 million metric tons of soybeans in the week ended June 7, double the prior week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.
“The situation is still looking very tight,” Erin FitzPatrick, an analyst at Rabobank International, said by phone from London. “There is a tight U.S. balance sheet, and we don’t have a major harvest coming on line until 2013, except for the U.S.”
November-delivery soybeans advanced 0.6 percent to $13.17 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade by 1:16 p.m. London time. Prices are down 1.2 percent this week on speculation that rains in parts of the U.S. Midwest will aid crop prospects.
U.S. soybean reserves will drop to 140 million bushels on Aug. 31, 2013, down 20 percent from 175 million at the end of the current marketing year, the USDA said June 12. Soybean futures have climbed 8.9 percent this year as dry weather cut production in South America, spurring leading global importer China to buy more U.S. supplies.
“The export-sales data is bullish,” Hiroyuki Kikukawa, general manager for IDO Securities Co. in Tokyo, said by e-mail today. “Supply is fundamentally tight.”
Corn for December delivery was little changed at $5.1575 a bushel. The contract is headed for a 5.2 percent loss this week. Wheat for December delivery slipped 0.2 percent to $6.65 a bushel, leaving the contract set for a 1.2 percent weekly drop.
U.S. export sales of corn for delivery this marketing year and next tumbled 57 percent to 169,784 tons in the week of June 7 from the prior period, the USDA said. Wheat sales totaled 432,871 tons, less than a third of the previous week’s amount.
In Paris, November-delivery milling wheat fell 0.5 percent to 205 euros ($258.48) a ton on NYSE Liffe.
To contact the reporter on this story: Whitney McFerron in London at wmcferron1@bloomberg.net; Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net
