Soybeans Slip as Inventories Are Forecast to Reach Record
Category: Oilseeds
(Bloomberg) – Soybean futures dropped to a five-week low on speculation that a U.S. government report this week will show record global production and ample stockpiles. Wheat and corn advanced.
World soybean inventories may rise to an all-time high of 79.68 million metric tons before the start of the 2015 harvest in the Northern Hemisphere, a Bloomberg survey of analysts showed. A separate survey projected U.S. output at an all-time high this year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will release its forecast of world grain supply and demand on May 9.
The USDA report “probably is going to signal our first increase in potential supplies for next year,” Don Roose, president of U.S. Commodities Inc. in West Des Moines, Iowa, said in a telephone interview.
Soybean futures for July delivery fell 0.3 percent to close at $14.595 a bushel at 1:15 p.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade, after touching $14.4325, the lowest since March 31. The price has dropped in four of the past five sessions.
Reserves in the U.S., the largest exporter after Brazil, may double from this year to 297 million bushels, a Bloomberg survey showed.
U.S. farmers planted 5 percent of the soybean crop as of May 4, trailing the five-year average of 11 percent, the USDA said yesterday.
Corn futures for July delivery climbed 1.9 percent to close at $5.175 a bushel on the CBOT, up for a second day. Prices have rallied 23 percent this year.
Wheat futures for July delivery rose 1.4 percent to $7.39 a bushel in Chicago, a third straight increase, extending this year’s gain to 22 percent.
About half of the U.S. winter-wheat belt will remain short of moisture the next two weeks, and temperatures may top 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) today in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, Bethesda, Maryland-based Commodity Weather Group said.
