US soy steady on tight supplies

US soy futures were steady at seven-month high on Thursday as tight old-crop supplies on continued Chinese buying and lower production in Argentina prompted fresh investor buying.

Grains were also supported by the rallying stock and crude oil markets, analysts said.

The current market atmosphere is bullish and everyone wants to buy, said Higaki Genichiro from Sumitomo Corp. The soy supply and demand situation is tight and it is easy for investors and speculative money to enter the market, Higaki said.

Spot-month May soy traded at US$11.35 per bushel, unchanged from the previous close when the market reached a new seven-month peak. The most-active July contract was down one cent at US$11.17 per bushel.

The leader of Argentine Rural Confederations, one of the country's largest farm groups, said Argentina's soy crop was an estimated 30 million tonnes. Argentina's soy yields are worse than expected as farmers harvest their drought-hit crop, the Agriculture Secretariat said.

The Buenos Aires Grains Exchange on Wednesday (May 6) left unchanged from the previous week its forecast for the country's soy crop at 34 million tonnes.

China's Dalian soy futures were steady on Thursday, with the most-active January contract unchanged at RMB3,493 (US$512) by midday.

The overall soy market sees signs of going up, with soy oil leading the charge, according to Dong Shuangwei, a researcher with Capital Futures in Beijing. The soy oil market will be strong on short supply due to low crushing profit, Dong said.