(Bloomberg) – Soybeans snapped the longest slump in more than a month on speculation that farmers in the U.S., last season’s largest grower, may withhold supplies after spot prices fell to the cheapest since June.
The contract for May delivery gained as much as 0.4 percent to $14.155 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, and was at $14.1375 at 9:40 a.m. in Singapore with volume that was 61 percent below the 100-day average for that time of the day.
Soybeans delivered to U.S. Gulf elevators were at $14.775 a bushel as of yesterday, the lowest price since June 18, U.S. Department of Agriculture data compiled by Bloomberg show. Workers at Brazil’s Santos port plan a work stoppage from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. today, unless their demand for a salary increase to offset inflation is met, Robson Apolinario said by phone.
“Farmers will hoard their crops, waiting for supply to dry up in South America,” Tetsu Emori, a commodity fund manager at Astmax Investment Management Inc., which manages about $700 million, said by phone from Tokyo. “Prices are just too cheap for them. They’ll wait for fresh demand from China to push prices higher.”
Corn for May delivery was little changed at $7.195 a bushel, after rising as much as 0.6 percent to $7.21 yesterday, the highest price for the most-active contract since Feb. 7. Wheat gained 0.3 percent to $7.145 a bushel, trading at a discount to corn for a second day.
