Tuesday was a mostly lower day of trade in the CBOT soybean and meal markets, while soyoil prices were higher at day’s end. The USDA announced that China bought 2 more cargos of old crop US soybeans, and Tuesday’s sale marks the 5th export sales announcement in the last 5 days. In total, soybean export sales announcements have amounted to just over 1 MMTs since last Monday, with all but 123,000 MTS of that total being old crop sales. More than half of the old crop total is known to be to China, and the rest is to an unknown destination.
Soymeal spreads have seen profit taking ahead of the March WASDE, which also left old crop/new crop soybean prices mixed at the end of Tuesday. The chart plots the nearby CBOT soybean crush spread, which closed at $1.50/Bu last week and was at $1.37/Bu at todays close.
Some of the driest parts of Buenos Aires are expected to see better rains in late March. However forecast rains are far from being a drought buster, and confidence in the outlook beyond 10 days is often low. We expect corrections just ahead or just after Thursday’s WASDE report will be well supported. CONAB will be out Thursday AM with Brazil’s forecast
