Soybeans Head for Longest Winning Streak in a Month on China Buy

(Bloomberg) – Soybeans advanced for a fourth-day, the longest winning streak since April, as U.S. exporters sold more oilseeds to China and on signs policy makers around the world may take steps to revive the slowing economy.

November-delivery soybeans gained as much as 0.8 percent to $13.095 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade and were at $13.0525 at 3:53 p.m. Singapore time. The most-active contract is heading for a 3.8 percent gain this week.

Exporters in the U.S., the world’s largest grower and shipper, sold 120,000 metric tons of soybeans to China for delivery in the year ending Aug. 31, the Department of Agriculture said yesterday. The Group of Seven nations agreed to coordinate their response to Europe’s debt crisis. Federal Reserve Vice-Chairman Janet Yellen said the U.S. economy may need additional monetary stimulus.

“The export sales report is one reason why prices are up,” Chung Yang Ker, an analyst at Phillip Futures Pte., said by phone from Singapore today. “We’ve also seen the macro- economic environment turning to an optimistic mood.”

China’s purchases reported yesterday add to the 2 million tons in outstanding sales to the Asian nation as of May 24, and the 20.6 million tons that have already been shipped since the marketing year began Sept. 1, 2011, according to USDA data.

The country’s corn imports will rise to 7 million tons for the 12 months that began on May 1, up from 5.5 million a year earlier, a unit of the USDA said in a report posted on its website yesterday. China’s production will drop to 192 million tons from 192.78 million a year earlier, it said.

Grain Stockpiles

Corn for July delivery was little changed at $5.865 a bushel, after climbing as much as 0.7 percent. Futures jumped 3.3 percent yesterday. Wheat for July fell 0.4 percent to $6.215 a bushel after gaining 1.8 percent yesterday.

U.S. corn, soybean and wheat inventories before this year’s harvests may be less than the government forecast last month as smaller world crops boost demand for American supplies, according to a Bloomberg survey. The USDA is scheduled to update its estimates on June 12 at 8:30 a.m. in Washington.

Wheat will probably decline over the next 12 months, even with a “modest” cut by the USDA of its estimate on global stockpiles, Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in a report today. Global inventories will probably remain at a “comfortable level,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net