Beans Catapult Higher Overnight
Feb 22, 2013
Soybean futures eclipsed the $15 mark and traded as high as $15.16 on nearby March futures in the overnight session continuing to hold 20-cent gains. Wheat and corn prices followed, but were up only 3 cents a bushel.
The soybean market found new buying enthusiasm deliveries of about 7 million metric tons are held up at ports in Brazil. Chinese soy crushers boosted purchases from the U.S. this week on concern that a possible strike in Brazil by dock workers will disrupt shipping. Yesterday, USDA reported 130,000 MT sales of soybeans to unknown destinations. Some insiders are saying China has bought up to 500,000 MT of soybeans this week in private deals.
For corn, traders continue to look ahead to the spring corn crop. USDA on Thursday gave a surprisingly small corn plantings number at 96.5 million while many analysts expect acreage of 98 to 99 million. Even so , USDA’s normal weather expectation would build out next year’s ending stocks to around 2 billion bushels and push US average prices into the $4.80 area. China’s feed mills bought at least 120,000 metric tons of corn from the U.S. this week, the first purchases this year.
In wheat, winter storm Q dropped 1.5 to 2.5 inches of precipitation in the last 48 hours across key growing areas of Oklahoma and Kansas. Export business seems to show signs of picking up. On Thursday USDA reported the private sale of 110,000 MT of SRW wheat to unknown destinations.
