Soybeans Head for Second Weekly Loss as China Buying May Slow

June 21st, 2013

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Category: Grains, Oilseeds

(Bloomberg) – Soybeans fell, poised for a second weekly decline, on speculation that a cash squeeze in China may cap economic growth and slow purchases from the world’s biggest buyer. Corn dropped.

Soybeans for delivery in November lost as much as 0.6 percent to $12.7775 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, and were at $12.795 by 11:23 a.m. in Singapore. The contract is heading for a 1.4 percent drop this week after a 2.4 percent loss in the previous five-day period.

Interbank lending rates spiked in China this week to records because of a cash crunch, amid waning confidence about the prospects for the world’s second-largest economy. The rates retreated today after the monetary authority was said to have made funds available to lenders. Total net U.S. soybean export sales fell 66 percent to 161,113 metric tons in the week ending June 13 from a week earlier, Department of Agriculture data show.

“Weaker Chinese economic activity is raising fears for a marked slowdown in oilseed import demand this year, which in turn is weighing on prices,” Luke Mathews, a strategist atCommonwealth Bank of Australia, wrote in a report today.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and UBS AG have cut their 2013 growth forecasts for China as the country’s industrial output and exports slowed.

Corn for delivery in December, after the U.S. harvest, lost 0.3 percent to $5.59 a bushel, falling for a second day. Wheat for September delivery gained 0.4 percent to $7.0105 a bushel.

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