Reuters – Chicago soybeans rallied July 29 and were set for their biggest weekly rise in 22 years, as forecasts of hot and dry weather in the U.S. Midwest raised supply concerns and strong soymeal demand added support.
Corn was also on track for its biggest weekly gain in nearly five months, while wheat was set to finish the week higher after two weeks of decline.
The Chicago Board of Trade’s (CBOT) most active soybean contract was up 25 and a half cents to US$14.66 a bushel. The market was up 11.36 per cent last week, its biggest gain since Aug. 6, 1999.
Read Also
Thunderstorms and straight-line winds
Straight-line winds in thunderstorms can cause as much damage as a tornado and are next on our weather school list exploring how and why severe summer weather forms.
CBOT’s most active corn contract traded near even, down a quarter cent at $6.18 and poised for its biggest weekly rise since March 4.
Despite recent rains and below-normal temperatures across parts of the U.S. Midwest, forecasts pointed to hot and dry weather in early August, raising concerns for soybean crops during their crucial pod development, as well as for late-planted corn, which is still pollinating.
“This very hot and dry forecast is coming in right at the time when beans don’t need it,” said Craig VanDyke, senior risk manager at Top Third Ag Marketing. “Does that take some of the top end of the corn too, especially the later-planted stuff?”
Soybean meal set life-of-contract highs in nearly every contract month, as crushers weighed tight old-crop supplies against ample demand.
“Meal supplies are tightening,” said Don Roose, president of U.S. Commodities. “There’s some real world demand underneath the market.”
In the first flash sale in nine days, U.S. exporters reported the sale of 132,000 tonnes of soybeans for delivery to unknown destinations during the 2022-23 marketing year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported.
In contrast to corn and soybeans, U.S. wheat markets fell as movement progressed on Ukraine’s grain exports through the Black Sea. Ukraine is ready to start shipping grain from two Black Sea ports under a UN-brokered agreement, but no date has been set for the first shipment, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov has said.
