Soybeans Drop to 17-Month Low on Slack Demand; Corn, Wheat Fall

July 26th, 2013

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Category: Grains, Oilseeds

(Bloomberg) – Soybeans fell to a 17-month low on signs of declining demand for the oilseed and its products and as mild weather aid crop development in the U.S. Midwest. Corn and wheat also dropped.

Soybean exports in the week through July 18 fell 32 percent to 82,231 metric tons, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report today. Exports of soy-based meal and oil fell to marketing-year lows. No hot weather is forecast in the Midwest for the next 10 days, favoring crops that are in critical growth stages, forecaster DTN said.

“Demand has backed off and the premiums sank,” Ken Smithmier, an analyst at The Hightower Report in Chicago, said by telephone. “On top of that, you have the weather, which at the moment is still looking pretty good for row-crop development. The main thing is the meal demand has backed off.”

Soybean futures for November delivery tumbled 2.6 percent to settle at $12.24 a bushel at 1:15 p.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade, after touching $12.155, the lowest since Feb. 10, 2012. The price is down 13 percent this year, partly on speculation global production will rise.

Soybean-meal futures for December delivery plunged 3.9 percent to $365.50 per 2,000 pounds on the CBOT. Soybean-oil futures for delivery in the same month declined 0.6 percent to 43.85 cents a pound, after touching 43.51 cents, the lowest since October 2010.

U.S. exports of soybean meal totaled 58,727 tons in the week through July 18, less than a third of the prior seven days, USDA data show. Soybean-oil shipments of 889 tons were down from 11,242 a week earlier. Both were the lowest exports for the marketing year, which began on Oct. 1.

Corn futures for December delivery fell 0.3 percent to $4.7875 a bushel in Chicago, after touching $4.7525, the lowest since Oct. 5, 2010. The grain has tumbled 39 percent in 12 months as U.S. farmers are set to harvest a record crop.

Wheat futures for September delivery slipped 0.6 percent to $6.4925 a bushel on the CBOT, the fourth straight decline. The price earlier reached $6.48, the lowest since June 19, 2012.

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