Market News

Soybeans, corn see end-of-week profit taking

Soybeans were lower on profit taking and technical selling but did manage a decent week-to-week gain. Beans gave back some post-USDA report gains, while watching U.S. harvest activity and weather in South America. Stateside, the trade was expecting the USDA to report generally good harvest progress in Monday’s weekly numbers, while the USDA’s next set of supply and demand estimates is out November 9^th. Unknown destinations bought 117,300 tons of 2023/24 U.S. beans Friday, along with 100,000 tons of 23/24 bean meal. That was the third announced sale of soybeans during the week for a total of 746,300 tons. Weekly sales were above a million tons and quite a bit larger than average, mainly to China, followed by Mexico, but with a cancelation by unknown destinations.
Soybean meal was lower and bean oil was higher, unwinding product spreads.

Corn was modestly lower on profit taking and technical selling, while still firm on the week. Corn saw a correction, despite near-term U.S. harvest delays and mixed planting weather in Argentina and Brazil. Parts of Argentina remain drier than ideal, while conditions in Brazil range from excessively wet to excessively dry. Still, analysts are predicting improved production for Argentina and a smaller-than-a-year-ago, but still large, crop for Brazil. Brazil, and to an extent, Ukraine both continue to provide a lot of U.S. export competition. Export sales were down on the week, but still solid, mostly to Mexico and China, with a modest reduction by unknown destinations. There were also light 2024/25 sales, all to Mexico.

The wheat complex was mixed, with Chicago seeing bull spreading and Kansas City and Minneapolis down on profit taking, also closing mixed for the week. Export sales were a marketing year high, led by China and unknown destinations, and China bought another 181,000 tons of U.S. soft red winter Friday morning. China is the world’s top producer of wheat and has the largest single nation reserve, but their domestic prices are higher than most export prices. Russia remains in control of the market, but that’s showing some signs of starting to slip at least a little, and while Ukraine is still exporting grain, it’s at a much slower pace due to continued Russian attacks on infrastructure and Moscow’s sabotage of the Black Sea Grain Initiative. U.S. winter wheat planting conditions are generally favorable. There will be some rain delays, but that’s also recharging soil moisture ahead of the crop going into dormancy.