(Businessweek) – Soybeans rallied for the first time in three sessions before a U.S. Department of Agriculture report tomorrow that will probably show global inventories declined from last month’s estimate.
The contract for May delivery advanced as much as 0.5 percent to $14.7125 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade and was at $14.6875 by 11:24 a.m. in Singapore. Futures lost 0.7 percent in the past two sessions.
Soybeans surged 14 percent this year, climbing to a nine-month high last week, after USDA data showed reserves on March 1 in the U.S., the world’s biggest producer, were at the lowest level for the date in a decade. Global stockpiles before this year’s Northern Hemisphere harvests may be smaller than the USDA forecast last month, according to a Bloomberg survey.
“The market is looking for tighter-than-expected global supplies coming from the USDA report,” Vanessa Tan, an analyst at Phillip Futures Pte in Singapore, said by phone today. “We have also seen an increase in demand, especially from crushing.”
World soybean reserves may total 70.05 million metric tons for the 2013-14 crop year, according to the average of as many as 19 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with USDA’s previous estimate of 70.64 million tons.
The agency will also update its U.S. reserve estimates at noon tomorrow. On March 1, U.S. stockpiles dropped to 992.3 million bushels, the lowest for the date since 2004, while supplies stored in farm bins fell 16 percent from a year earlier to the smallest percentage of total supplies since 1977, USDA data show.
Corn for May delivery added 0.1 percent to $4.995 a bushel, taking this year’s advance to 18 percent. Wheat rose 0.1 percent to $6.7675, climbing 12 percent in 2014.
