Market News

Soybeans, bean oil consolidate

Soybeans were mixed, also ending the week mixed. Contracts consolidated in light trade volume after Thursday’s drop, after initial support from the solid NOPA member crush numbers from April and oversold signals. Beans essentially continued to follow the lead of bean oil, which also consolidated after Thursday’s limit down move linked to RVO concerns. An additional concern for bean oil is the temporary tariff reduction with China, which could open the door for more imports of used cooking oil for biofuels, squeezing out U.S. bean oil. Soybean meal futures were lower on demand questions. U.S. planting and development conditions generally look favorable, with beans also watching harvest activity in Argentina and some early talk about new crop planting in Brazil.

Corn was lower on speculative and technical selling, ensuring a lower weekly finish. Corn was watching the U.S. planting pace, expecting the USDA to report solid week-to-week progress in Monday’s update. There’s some near-term rain in the forecast for parts of the Corn Belt. Even if there are some delays over the next few days, and the potential for severe weather in portions of the region, the soil moisture recharge is viewed as a long-term benefit for production. Long-range forecasts are generally unreliable, but some outlooks are hot and dry in many key growing areas. Corn is also monitoring Argentina’s harvest and second crop development conditions for Brazil. The USDA’s updated supply, demand, and production numbers are out June 12^th.

The wheat complex was lower on profit taking and technical selling, along with the higher trade in the dollar, while finishing the week mixed, depending on the pit. The U.S. winter wheat crop is in good overall shape and spring wheat planting is moving forward is moving forward in most of the northern U.S. Plains and Canadian Prairies. Parts of that region should see much needed rainfall into next week, but that could also come with frost chances, potentially damaging some of just emerging crop. There are concerns about dry conditions in parts of Europe and China, with traders also monitoring planting and development conditions in Australia, Russia, and Ukraine. The Rosario Grain Exchange is projecting a 4% increase in wheat planted area for Argentina in 2025/26, which would be the largest in more than a decade. France’s AgriMer says 73% of soft wheat is in good to very good shape, a little bit less than last week. The governments of Russia and Egypt will reportedly form a joint committee to track wheat trade.