Soybeans Rise for Third Day as Chinese Demand May Be Sustained
Category: Oilseeds
(Businessweek) – Soybeans rose for a third day in Chicago as signs of a stabilizing economy in China, the world’s biggest importer of the oilseed, fueled speculation demand from the country may be sustained. Wheat and corn climbed.
Industrial output, retail sales and fixed-asset investment in China last month beat estimates from analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, statistics showed. Still, growth weakened for a seventh quarter in the three months through September. Chinese soybean imports may increase 9.3 percent to 57.5 million metric tons this year, state-owned researcher Grain.gov.cn said.
“Today’s data will fuel hopes that slowing Chinese growth will no longer be a drag on global growth,” Arnaud Saulais, a broker at Starsupply Commodity Brokers in Nyon, Switzerland, wrote in an e-mailed comment. “Slowing growth in China may no longer be seen as a drag on soybean prices.”
Soybeans for November delivery gained 1.3 percent to $15.29 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade by 12:38 p.m. Paris time. Prices rose 27 percent this year as the worst U.S. drought since 1956 curbed production.
China’s imports will probably reach 3.5 million tons in October, 5.2 million tons in November and 4.5 million tons in December, Grain.gov.cn said in a report.
“Talk of continued export demand from top soybean buyer China lent support” to prices, Teoh Say Hwa, head of investment at Phillip Futures Pte, said in an e-mail.
Wheat for delivery in December added 0.8 percent to $8.635 a bushel. Milling wheat for January delivery traded on NYSE Liffe in Paris rose 0.9 percent to 257.25 euros ($337.31) a ton.
Reserves of wheat in Australia, the second-biggest shipper, dropped 14 percent to 7.1 million tons at Sept. 30 from a year earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
Corn for delivery in December climbed 0.9 percent to $7.52 a bushel in Chicago. The grain reached a record $8.49 in August as the U.S. drought destroyed crops.
To contact the reporters on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net;
To contact the reporter on this story: Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at rruitenberg@bloomberg.net
